The head of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been charged by the French judiciary for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the messaging app but avoided jail with a €5m bail.

The Russian-born multi-billionaire, who has French citizenship, was granted release on condition that he report to a police station twice a week and remain in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.

The charges against Durov include complicity in the spread of sexual images of children and a litany of other alleged violations on the messaging app.

His surprise arrest has put a spotlight on the criminal liability of Telegram, the popular app with around 1 billion users, and has sparked debate over free speech and government censorship.

  • taanegl@beehaw.org
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    2 months ago

    So to make it clear, it’s because their company actually holds some data for clients that these governments want access to - because telegram is not peer-to-peer, unless you set a chat to private.

    In essence Telegram as a company holds a lot of data that the French authorities want access to…

    This comment brought to you by the Signal gang.

    • istanbullu@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Nobody is coming after Signal because nobody uses Signal. Telegram has a user base of almost 1 billion.