Billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov charged: Everything you need to know

Welcome to our Deep dive into the life of pavl durov the billionaire founder of telegram whose recent arrest in France has sparked Global headlines in this Sky News digital Originals we'll explore durov's background his rise to Tech prominence and the circumstances surrounding his arrest join us as we uncover the story of one of the most intriguing figures in the tech [Music] World Sky New Year's digital original presents who is pavl jov on August 25th paval DV was arrested in France and he is now under a formal investigation he stands accused of aiding and betting criminal offenses on his messaging app amongst other things this arrest was a dramatic turn in a story that has already seen its share of high profile moments the arrest has initially to do with claims around its the willingness of telegram to cooperate with Western uh law enforcement agencies investigating crimes that are coordinated on the application it's become very popular uh for criminal groups uh to coordinate their activities on on telegram uh and the company has been unwilling so far to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in the West on getting access to user information telegram allows people to communicate all different types of information research thoughts opinions kind of what it's supposed to be like right freedom of speech but also factual information and what's interesting is that they can say to someone there's child trafficking you know happening on this really so they can't get rid of porn and child porn off the internet they can't get rid of that with you know Facebook and they've been responsible for sharing images Google could be responsible all these other places are responsible but they targeting the one platform that has been the biggest supporter of free speech through the last 5 years telegram issued this statement not long after durov's arrest it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform almost a billion users globally use telegram as a means of communication and as a source of Vital Information we're awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation telegram is with you all the arrest has ignited a firestorm of reactions online with supporters rallying around durov and critics questioning the motives behind his detainment ex-owner Elon Musk posted a video of durov with the hasht free Pavel the response out of his home country of Russia has also been met with anger and outrage they're absolutely livid Uh Russian bloggers are going nuts they're trying to transfer a lot of their Communications over to other platforms it's going to be very difficult considering how heavily used tegram is by Russian uh military forces and it's they' built up these huge audiences for coordinating disinformation campaigns so even in Australia for example let's just take a specific example here uh there is a Russian citizen uh uh who goes by the name uh Aussie CAC on telegram Simon boov is his real name very pro-russian so he's currently hiding in the Russian consulate but he's built up a telegram presence uh he coordinates a huge amount of his disinformation using his telegram following and then he uses that telegram group to manipulate other platforms like Facebook and Twitter so even in Australia uh we see elements of Russian disinformation particularly by uh Simon boov and another account goes by name Syria girl who's massively pro-russian Pro Syria uh pro-assad uh coord you know coordinating huge disinformation out of Australia using tegram so these issues kind of come together into a fulum of the French deciding that it's time to do something about this guy he is a French citizen uh he's also a UAE Citizen and UAE reacted uh in his defense as well they've asked for Consular assistance he was given his a UAE citizenship in no small part because of the power of telegram and uae's longstanding National interest in accessing encrypted Communications so who exactly is pavl jov the man who has just been arrested in France well he's known as the Russian Elon Musk he spent his early years in Russia showcasing a strong interest in technology from a young age so pav jurov is a Serial uh technology founder and inventor uh originally from Leningrad in Russia was born during the Soviet Union his first uh company was VK which was another which is another social media company that's quite popular in Russia and then he founded the application it's been a very successful company and has become uh originally the social media of choice for the Russian language which has made it incredibly popular in Slavic countries but it's since then found that it's had a much larger user base as well uh in the english- speaking World his first major Tech Venture VK was often referred to as the Russian Facebook it quickly became Russia's largest social networking site showcasing dv's knack for understanding Digital Trends and user behavior in 2013 paval jov alongside his brother launched telegram a messaging app designed to offer secure and private communication telegram distinguished itself with endtoend encryption and a commitment to user privacy this distinguished themselves from messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger the app's unique selling points quickly garnered a massive user base making it one of the most popular messaging apps worldwide the most positive use case that I've had for telegram is that it's very uh useful for getting air raid alerts in Ukraine so if you're operating on your mobile phone and you're in a office building A lot of the time you don't hear Air Raid Sirens so you won't be necessarily aware of exactly what's going on in the news and because it's incredibly popular in Ukraine uh amongst the government and civilian population they actually used as part of the emergency uh Services uh announcements for missile attacks so at the moment in ke right now uh they're receiving air raid uh alerts and missile attacks from the Russian uh armed forces and they're get a lot of people are getting information about that through the app the downside is a lot of the coordination of those strikes is being done on telegram by the Russians so telegram has become the platform of choice for the Russian Armed Forces because it's a Russian language platform because durov is Russian because durov is uh assessed by Ukrainian intelligence uh to have a significant relationship with Russian intelligence it's trusted by Russian forces uh as a platform that they can use to coordinate military activities uh so at the military layer getting access to the back end of telegram uh by Western Law Enforcement and intelligence is terrifying to the Russians which is why they're treating his arrest in France as an organized defection so when you look online and you see the uh commentary by Russian uh bloggers they're panicking because so much of the Russian Armed Forces coordinated uh on the platform so many Russian disinformation efforts are coordinated on the platform it's been used regularly as part of an information operation strategy by the Russian government and the French have got a particular ax to grind with telegram after their recent election where protin candidate uh Leen uh did very well and narrowly and was narrowly defeated from winning uh the the Parliamentary elections with a party so that has the French very angry uh they're rather annoyed that Russia intervenes in its elections using telegram as part of the coordination process for that and so there's a lot of overlapping legal issues that are facing the application not the least which in the United States another uh piece of legislation recent past last year it's been primarily discussed in terms of how it applies to Tik Tok because it applies to countries that are authoritarian that host social media platforms that are used to influence American elections and stenor American free speech now that law was written you know it's been primarily discussed in terms of its applications to Tik Tok but it also likely applies to WeChat and telegram so telegram is fa flying in the face of increasing legal issues uh the relationship between durov and the Russian state has always been uh prickly on the outside but assessed by Ukrainian intelligence to be very cozy on the inside uh and as a result Ukrainian forces don't use it one of the reasons why they got surprise in the recent krisk offensive was because they didn't use telegram for their forces uh even though telegram is incredibly popular in the Ukrainian Armed Forces so they were very careful not to give the Russians a heads up uh and managed to achieve strategic and tactical surprise during the offensive the telegram is a very complex application uh in terms of how it's being perceived globally and durov uh at least in the view of the Russians and the Ukrainian intelligence is using his arrest by the French to do some sort of a deal to get him out of some of the trouble that he's in despite telegram's success jov's Journey has been fraught with controversy his outspoken nature and the app stats on privacy have frequently put him at odds with governments and Regulatory bodies in an interview with Tucka Carson on the Tucka Carson Network in April the tech founder made some bold allegations around issues he and his platform have come up against we got too much attention from the the FBI the security agencies wherever we came to the US so to give you an example last time I was in the US I brought uh an engineer that is working for telegram and there was an attempt to secretly hire my engineer behind my back by cyber security off officers or agents whatever they are called the US government should to hire your engineer that's my understanding that's what he told me to write code for them or to break into telegram they were curious to learn which open- source libraries are integrated to the telegram's app you know on the client's side and they were trying to persuade him to use certain open- Source tools that he would then integrate into the telegram's code that in my understanding would serve as back doors would allow the US government to spy on people who use telegram the US government or maybe any other government because a back door is a back door regardless of who is using it that's right and and and you're that's a little surprising here maybe it's not surprising it's it's offensive you're confident that happened yes there is no reason for my engineer to make up the stories also because I personally experienced similar pressure in the US whenever I would go to the US I would have two FBI agents greeting me at the airport asking questions one time I was uh having my breakfast like 9:00 a.m. and uh uh the FBI showed up my house that I was renting and uh that was quite surprising and I thought you know we're getting too much attention here uh it's probably not the best environment to run why would they had you committed a crime no they were interested to learn more about telegram they knew I you know left Russia they they knew what we were doing but they wanted de dets and my understanding is that they wanted to establish a relationship to in a way control telegram better I'm I I understand they were doing their job it's just that for us running a privacy focused social media platform that probably wasn't the best environment to be and we want to be focused on what we do not on government relations of that sort telegrams continue success and its role as a tool for privacy Advocates will likely be impacted by this legal battle durov's leadership has been instrumental in shaping the app's Direction and his legal troubles could influence how telegram navigates future challenges there are still plenty of repercussions of durov's arrest that are yet to unfold I think in the first instance we should all be enjoying the Russians freaking out that's always good when that happens I think as a person who spent a lot of time in Ukraine uh it's always good when they have a bad day uh when dictators struggle to manipulate Western uh elections when they struggle to get their propaganda out when that's disrupted I think we should universally acknowledge that that's a good thing uh the longer term of unpicking uh telegram whether it has a future as an app as a European company rather than a Russian one if it can fully cut itself away uh from the Russian state its interests and it can demonstrate trust uh to its Western uh you know Regulators uh it'll it'll likely have a future I think durov's got a better chance of getting his company out of Russia uh than showu the CEO of Tik Tok has of getting his app out of China so I think we'll be looking to see if Tik Tok uh follows a similar pan of trying to do a deal with the US government or the French government in some way uh to get out of I don't think that's going to happen but I think telegram uh might just get away with it if they can uh if they can fully cut tires to Putin and certainly Putin and his cronies and the information space in Russia is treating this like telegrams changing sites as we await further developments one thing is clear Pavel durov's journey is far from over his story is a compelling mix of innovation controversy and resilience a reflection of the broader struggles faced by Tech leaders and a rapidly evolving world