the [French] court decided to share a press release listing the charges against Durov. According to this document, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation against Durov on July 8 related to efforts to combat cybercrime. 

The Centre for the Fight against Cybercrime (C3N) and the Anti-Fraud National Office (ONAF) have been involved in the investigation. In all, 12 charges have been filed against “a person unnamed” — a classic French judicial term to imply whoever is in charge of Telegram right now.

The charges can be broken down into four categories:

• Firstly, Telegram’s founder has been charged with being complicit in storing and distributing CSAM content, facilitating drug trafficking and facilitating organized fraud and other illegal transactions.
• Second, the court claims that Telegram refuses to cooperate with law enforcement when they file a formal request for information or documents.
• Third, Durov faces several charges related to Telegram’s cryptographic features as they haven’t been formally declared or certified by French authorities. These seem to be minor offenses according to professor of law Florence G’sell.
• Fourth, Durov is accused of taking part in a “criminal association with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable by 5 or more years of imprisonment”, as well as money laundering.

The charges are both broad and technical at the same time. It’s also hard to know exactly their basis without access to the full investigation.

The charges related to CSAM content, drug trafficking and fraud are likely related to Telegram’s moderation processes. As a reminder, Telegram currently has 950 million monthly active users and few moderation tools and processes. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Durov mentioned that there are only 30 engineers working on the social app.

As for the money laundering charge, Telegram added a digital currency, called Stars, last month. This currency can be used to buy digital content from other users. But Stars can also be converted to Toncoin, the cryptocurrency Telegram uses for various paid features.

Telegram also has a built-in crypto wallet and Toncoins can be traded on various crypto exchanges and transferred to a bank account. 

Based on today’s charges, it may be investigators suspect Telegram of failing to follow “know your customer” requirements in relation to some of its crypto-related features, which could have facilitated money laundering.

A sixth charge on the prosecutor’s list is particularly hard to decipher. “Complicity — offering, selling or making available, without legitimate reason, equipment, tools, programs or data designed for or adapted to get access to and to damage the operation of an automated data processing system,” Prosecutor Laure Beccuau wrote.

There’s one thing we know for sure in light of this list of charges — Durov was arrested due to a criminal investigation. 

His arrest was not related to the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) or other tech-specific regulation. Enforcement of the EU’s online governance rules could not lead to a platform owner being arrested.

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