Founder’s arrest roils US extremist groups that rely on Telegram

As soon as French authorities arrested Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, the far-right landscape in the U.S. began to buzz with concern about losing its preferred communication platform. 
Telegram, the messaging and social media app, is used for mainstream communication across much of Eastern Europe and other continents. But in the United States, Telegram is an outlier. 
America’s far right flocked to the app as traditional social media sites ramped up their content moderation in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, and its hands-off approach to content moderation has made it a refuge for extremists and conspiracy theorists of all kinds. 
Pavel’s arrest and charges in a wide range of crimes –  related to Telegram’s alleged complicity in allowing users to trade in child pornography, drugs and money laundering – left those same users speculating about a possible upheaval. 
“Telegram may go offline or decide to radically change as a result of this,” warned one Telegram channel for a chapter of the Proud Boys on Monday. “Does your PB chapter  … have an alternative means of communication? Now would be the time to ensure that you do.”
Similar conversations are taking place across various extremist groups, said Joan Donovan, founder of the nonprofit The Critical Internet Studies Institute, who has been studying disinformation and incitement to violence on the platform.
“In the past few days, we’ve been tracking fear and paranoia that now they’ve arrested the CEO, they’ll give up all the private information, and Telegram itself will be compromised,” Donovan said. 
Though the charges against Durov are serious, it’s far from clear whether the case will affect the day-to-day operation of the platform.
Adam Hadley, founder and executive director of the London-based nonprofit Tech Against Terrorism, noted that Telegram has faced significant challenges before and overcome them.
“Telegram almost certainly will stay up,” Hadley said. Though the founder is central to the app’s operation, Telegram is resilient, Hadley said. “It has survived many attacks on it by governments, so I would imagine it will just carry on running.”
Telegram is a multifaceted app allowing encrypted messages that can’t be traced or viewed by others.  
It allows users to create “channels” similar to Facebook groups, where moderators can post content including videos, graphics, audio and links. It also allows users to livestream video and monetize their content, collecting donations including via cryptocurrency.
Durov, a 39-year-old billionaire who founded Telegram with his brother in 2013, was born in Russia, grew up in Italy and now holds French citizenship while also carrying passports from at least two other countries, according to media reports. 
Believed to have a vast fortune, he resides in Dubai, posts shirtless pictures on Instagram, and reportedly travels with a cadre of a few dozen core programmers and engineers who keep Telegram running. 
On Aug. 24, Durov was arrested by French police when his private jet landed in an airport outside Paris. Durov was charged with 12 counts, including complicity in distributing or making available pornographic images of children, complicity in acquiring and selling narcotics, and money laundering. A conviction would carry a sentence of more than a decade in prison.
A statement posted to Durov’s Telegram channel reads: “Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act − its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”
Inspired by Durov’s hands-off approach to moderation, extremist communities started setting up on the platform. Today, Telegram users can find channels for the QAnon conspiracy theory, armed self-described militia groups, white supremacists and neo-Nazis. 
“There was a big push for the American far right to start using platforms that champion free speech and weren’t going to moderate their content,” Donovan said. 
The transition wasn’t immediate. Users migrated from Facebook and Instagram in waves. But eventually influencers and groups on the far right identified the platform as a good place to spread their message and recruit more followers, said Megan Squire, who has tracked domestic extremist groups online for more than a decade.
Today, hundreds of U.S. and international extremist groups thrive on the platform. Durov’s arrest has thrown them into disarray.
“It will be devastating to these groups if Telegram goes away,” said Squire, deputy director of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “So many of the features they rely on will be hard to replace, from data storage to video streaming to encrypted chats to payments. Where else can they find that all on one platform, and with no content moderation?“
Durov’s arrest was highlighted on dozens of Telegram channels for domestic extremists, but it resonated across platforms. On X, the hashtag #FreePavel circulated. Free speech advocates from both ends of the political spectrum decried the arrest, calling it an affront to civil liberties.
Conservative media covered the arrest closely, too.
“This is an attack on free speech and free expression,” political commentator Charlie Kirk told a guest during an interview on his talk show. “Telegram is where the dissident movement lives.”
In comments about the arrest, Telegram users mused about where they would set up shop in the case of the platform’s demise. Some suggested Trump’s social media site, Truth Social. Others pledged to head back to X, which had banned many extremist users but reinstated them after the platform was purchased by Elon Musk.
The discussion and planning reflected a stark reality faced by America’s far right, Donovan said: These groups and individuals have long had to move from one platform to another, and sometimes back to a previous platform again, to avoid oversight, she said.
Hadley agreed, noting these migrations probably only reduce extremist activity online temporarily.
“Removing an app or removing channels won’t itself get rid of the problem,” Hadley said. “Unless you’re coordinating across platforms, often the core activity will just move elsewhere.”
Will Carless is a national correspondent covering extremism and emerging issues. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @willcarless.