Has Telegram violated EU laws, and why has its founder been charged in France?

France has asserted that Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, bears responsibility for alleged crimes associated with his platform. However, the EC, of which France is a member, has chosen to distance itself from the case.

The EC specifically claimed that Durov’s case in France had nothing to do with Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to address illegal content, transparent advertising and disinformation.

If Europe’s DSA is not related to the case, why has Durov been arrested in France? Does Telegram abide by the EU laws related to content moderation? Cointelegraph will try to answer these questions in this article.

Telegram must abide by the DSA despite reporting less than 45 million users in the EU

In the immediate aftermath of Durov’s arrest on Aug. 24, Telegram issued an official statement, claiming that the messenger “abides by EU laws,” including the DSA.

“Its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving,” Telegram declared, citing Durov’s statement from March, which highlighted growing challenges in social media content moderation with respect to privacy and freedom of speech.

Europe’s DSA is a new framework regulating online intermediaries and platforms such as marketplaces, social networks, content-sharing platforms and others with the goal of preventing illegal and harmful activities and disinformation.

The DSA framework was implemented in November 2022 but was fully enforced on Feb. 17, 2024, giving online platforms four months to adapt to legal requirements.

According to the official DSA information, the framework targets platforms and search engines with more than 45 million users in the EU, leaving dealing with smaller platforms to member states.

Larger platforms are required to comply with additional obligations, such as risk management obligations, obligations to provide access to data for vetted researchers and obligations to submit their services to an audit

While Telegram was reported to have only 41 million users in the EU as of February 2024, the messenger is still subject to the framework at the member-state level by an independent regulator acting as the national digital services regulator (DSC).

“It will be the responsibility of the DSCs to ensure that these platforms play by the rules. DSCs will supervise and enforce the DSA for the platforms established on their territory,” the EU regulator stated in February.

Additionally, the European Union has been reportedly investigating whether Telegram failed to provide accurate data on its user numbers in the EU.

France serves Durov with charges of up to 10 years of prison time

France’s Prosecutor’s Office, or Parquet de Paris, issued an official statement on preliminary charges to Durov on Aug. 28, accusing the Telegram founder of facilitating a platform that enables illicit transactions. The prosecutors officially claimed that Durov is facing up to 10 years of prison time in addition to a 500,000 euros ($550,000) fine.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, France launched a preliminary investigation into Telegram in February 2024, while a judicial inquiry was started on July 8, 2024 — more than one month before Durov’s arrest in Paris.

Among the charges, the prosecutors mentioned Telegram’s refusal to communicate at the request of authorized authorities and provide the necessary information required by the law. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau wrote:

“Telegram’s almost total failure to respond to judicial requests was brought to the attention of the cybercrime section of the organized crime national court within the Paris public prosecutor’s office, in particular by the national office for minors.”

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She added that other French investigation departments and public prosecutors’ offices, as well as various Eurojust partners, notably Belgian, shared the same observation.

In addition to charges like alleged money laundering and criminal content dissemination, French prosecutors charged Durov with providing “cryptographic services to ensure confidentiality functions without a declaration of conformity.”

While Durov’s lawyers said it is “completely absurd” to make the CEO accountable for criminal acts that don’t involve Durov, either directly or indirectly, some experts argued that Telegram might not be doing its best to handle content moderation properly.

According to Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Telegram is likely to be struggling to handle legal requests, manage abuse and moderate content effectively, especially given Telegram’s apparent small headcount.

Durov himself claimed that Telegram had only 30 engineers working on the messenger in an interview with Tucker Carlson in April 2024.

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