Telegram's hands-off approach to content faces a reckoning

The popular social media platform’s policy choices have allowed abuse to proliferate.

- Parmy Olson

The recent arrest of Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov at Le Bourget airport near Paris has sent shockwaves through the tech world.

Mr Elon Musk called on France to "free Pavel" to avert a threat to democracy; Mr Paul Graham, the co-founder of leading Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, suggested it would hurt the country's chances of being "a major start-up hub". Yet while some are citing a French-led assault on free speech and innovation, the reality is more nuanced.

Mr Durov's detention is not a shocking act of government overreach, but the culmination of years of tension between his ultra-lax approach to oversight and growing concern about Telegram's role in enabling criminal activity. The charges are extensive and serious, covering Telegram's complicity in the distribution of child sexual-abuse material (CSAM), drug trafficking and money laundering.

While the likes of Meta Platforms, Tik Tok and Alphabet's YouTube have much stricter bans on such activities, Mr Durov's arrest should also be taken as a sign that the "no consequences" era for social media is fading as governments push to make companies more accountable for what happens on their apps.