Telegram Billionaire’s Rebel Streak Puts His Freedom at Risk
- Detention comes amid pressure to monetize his polarizing app
- Officials target misinformation, hate speech in chat platform
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Pavel Durov’s laissez-faire attitude to regulation made messaging app Telegram into a giant and gave him a platform to clash with officials from Moscow to Brussels from his perch in Dubai.
His decision to repeatedly ignore requests from governments to better moderate content on his platform reached a tipping point this weekend, when he was detained in France over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately combat crime on the app, including the spread of child sexual abuse material.