circleWhen Pavel Durov was criticized by Russian regulators for spreading pornography on the social media platform he founded, VKontakte, the tech entrepreneur responded derisively by changing his Twitter handle from “VK CEO” to “Porn King.”
More than a decade later, Durov's anti-authoritarian stance and his penchant for moderation have landed him in even deeper trouble.
A Paris court on Wednesday indicted a 39-year-old man for his role in spreading child sexual abuse images on the Telegram messaging app, as well as a number of other offences.
Since launching in 2013, Durov has positioned Telegram as a politically neutral haven for free speech, free from government control. Over the years, he seemed unconcerned about increasing global regulation targeting tech companies, or growing criticism that his platform was being used for criminal and terrorist activities.
“It seems he overestimated himself. Durov thought he had unlimited freedom and was too important to be arrested. The French thought differently,” said Russian journalist Nikolai Kononov, one of the few reporters who spoke to the tech billionaire multiple times and wrote his biography.
For now Durov has avoided prison by paying €5 million (£4.2 million) bail but he has been asked to hand over three passports – one from France, one from St Kitts and one from Russia – clipping his wings as he is notoriously unlikely to stay in one place for long.
Born in the Soviet Union in 1984, Durov grew up in an intelligentsia family and attended a prestigious high school in St. Petersburg. Kononov said Durov rebelled against authority from an early age.
While studying programming at school, he hacked the system so that every computer in his classroom would display a picture of the teacher with the caption “Die.” He was banned from the computer lab for a month.
As a somewhat awkward teenager, Durov is said to have had enormous self-confidence, almost messianic, in his own abilities, and when a group of friends gathered at his apartment after high school to discuss future careers, he told them, without a hint of joke, that he would become an “Internet prophet.”
As Durov's reputation as a computer wizard grew during his time at university, two acquaintances showed him an early version of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook, and the group quickly decided to create a nearly identical Russian version.
To realize his vision, Durov enlisted the help of his brother Nikolai, a math genius who won gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad three years in a row in the 1990s and who would later become known as the mastermind behind VKontakte and Telegram.
With relatively little competition in the Russian market, VKontakte grew quickly and became the leading social networking platform not only in Russia but across the former Soviet bloc.
VKontakte offered a user experience similar to Facebook but designed specifically for Russian-speaking users, and its rapid growth was driven in part by the platform's ability to share and stream pirated music, movies, and pornography.
Durov's commitment to freedom was first tested during the protests against President Vladimir Putin that swept across Russia in early 2012. Durov emerged as a hero of the liberal opposition for refusing to close groups on the site that were dedicated to organizing the protests, and he further cemented his independence by refusing to hand over data on Ukrainian users to the Kremlin during the Maidan protests in Ukraine in 2013-2014.
But he gradually lost control of VKontakte to investors with ties to Mail.ru, a company owned by a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin.
Durov decided to leave Russia and wrote in his resignation message: “Since December 2013, I have no assets. But I have something more important: a clean conscience and ideals that I am ready to defend.”
Colleagues say Durov came up with the idea for Telegram while looking for a way to communicate securely with his team.
Telegram's novelty was the ability to create huge chat groups, making it easier for people to get organized, like a sophisticated version of WhatsApp.
Its “Channels” allowed it to quickly distribute information to large numbers of followers in a way that other messaging services couldn't, combining the reach and immediacy of a Twitter/X feed with the focus of an email newsletter.
The app's combination of ease of use and privacy has attracted a wide range of users, from lifestyle bloggers to anti-authoritarian protesters, and has helped fuel demonstrations in Iran, Belarus and Russia.
The internet is also becoming a haven for extremists and conspiracy theorists, and a favored tool for child abusers, drug cartels and terrorist groups.
In the business world, the success of Telegram, with nearly a billion users, proves that Durov is no mere copycat.
“VKontakte raised the question of whether Durov's success was due to his own merits or whether he was simply copying Facebook, but the launch of Telegram was clearly a technological breakthrough on a global scale,” said Pavel Cherkashin, a venture capitalist who worked with Durov.
As Telegram grew into a tech giant, Durov developed a reputation for being eccentric and arrogant: An obsessed with the films “The Matrix,” he imagined himself, and dressed as, a programmer with a mission, like Keanu Reeves' character Neo.
He is often called the “Russian Zuckerberg”, but his biographer, Kononov, points out that Durov was inspired by Apple's Steve Jobs, who was then at the height of his influence.
“Like Jobs, Durov saw himself as an authoritarian visionary who pushed his staff to their limits.”
Durov occasionally posted self-help articles titled “Rules for Life” on his Instagram account, advising his millions of followers to live a solitary life, avoid alcohol and coffee and refrain from overeating.
He also prided himself on owning minimal assets, claiming that this enabled him to live a mobile, unfixed life, supported by a team of just 30 full-time engineers around the world.
Durov has kept most details of his personal life private, but last month he revealed on social media that he is a sperm donor and now has more than 100 biological children.
At the time of his arrest, Durov, who arrived in Paris on a private jet, was accompanied by Dubai-based crypto coach and streamer, 24-year-old Juri Vabilova.
But while Durov has largely avoided the public scrutiny faced by other tech chiefs such as Elon Musk and Zuckerberg, foreign governments have long been scrutinizing him and trying to win his favor.
The Guardian previously reported that Durov's phone number was selected for surveillance using the Pegasus spy network, and The Wall Street Journal reported this week that spies from France and the United Arab Emirates hacked him in 2017.
At the same time, Durov appears to have been repeatedly entertained by French President Emmanuel Macron, who suggested he move the company to France.
“I don't think Durov expected to be arrested because he felt he was treated with respect in France,” said a source close to the billionaire, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Durov received French citizenship in 2021. Macron said on Thursday that the decision was “part of a well-thought-out strategy to ensure that men and women who make the effort to learn French, who generate wealth and innovation and who shine on the world stage, are able to receive French citizenship if they so wish.”
Le Monde The men reported meeting on several occasions. Before receiving his French passport, Durov had applied for French citizenship, which was confirmed by the Elysée Palace after he had lunch with Macron in 2018, the paper reported, during which the possibility of Telegram being based in France was mentioned.
Questions have been raised about the timing and circumstances of Durov's detention, in particular whether he knew that Paris had issued an arrest warrant against him.
Some have speculated that Durov has traveled to Paris to settle a legal dispute, but his ardent supporters doubt he will turn himself in voluntarily.
But most believe that Durov will likely frame this as a new chapter in the fight for freedom of speech and position himself as a champion of the cause.
“From the very beginning of his career, Durov has only grown stronger with each attack, further cementing his image as an opposition hero,” Kononov said.
Additional reporting by Kim Wilshere in Paris
