Telegram in Trouble after Founder’s Arrest
Pavel Durov, the founder of rapidly growing social media and messaging platform Telegram, has been arrested in France, only days after the company announced new features that would pay creators for content.
The company has been pushing innovations that use Toncoin (TON) as a means for Telegram users to pay for subscription and content from creators on the platform. The announcements have now been buried under the news that the company’s founder is under legal fire.
Governments around the world have been asking for stricter and more complete moderation on the platform, but those requests have been repeatedly denied. Telegram is touted as a free speech platform, with extensive privacy protection and the ability for users to post pretty much anything they want to.
The company’s own FAQ for Telegram states that it will “process legitimate requests to take down illegal public content”, which could include pornography, abuses of intellectual property, and terrorist content. The platform does not moderate freedom of speech disputes, however.
The platform has been asked to further moderate content that includes child sexual abuse items. The founder is accused of not adequately moderating criminal activity, making Telegram a prime platform for that kind of activity to take place.
The Impasse
Telegram’s founder is worth $9.2 billion, but that could be at risk due to the pressure he is being put under by government authorities. The French government will have the first go at him, since they have him in their custody. Even if he Is not convicted of a crime, the publicity surrounding the arrest will not help Telegram’s public image.
Telegram has balked at the idea of removing just about any content it has been asked to, save for the most egregiously violent content. Now, with pressure on the company to do more, they may be forced to step back their freedom of speech image and moderate more harshly.
The company was preparing to go public, but that could be in jeopardy as well with the arrest. Telegram has been free to use up to this point, but that could change too, especially if the company ends up paying millions in legal and criminal fees.
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