Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov — already in legal hot water in France — faced a new headache as European Union regulators launched an investigation into whether his messaging app skirted digital rules, according to a report.
EU legal and data experts suspect that Telegram falsely reported that the platform has fewer than 45 million users to stay under a key threshold, above which large online platforms face much stricter rules on their influence, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
Telegram, which has nearly 1 billion users worldwide, reported in February that it has 41 million users in the EU — but failed to provide an updated figure that was due this month.
Earlier this year, Durov told FT that Telgram’s user base was “roughly proportionate to the population of each market [or] continent” — with the exception of China.
Two EU officials told FT that Telegram’s failure to provide the latest data on its user base puts it in violation of the Digital Services Act, a law enacted last year to regulate Big Tech firms such as Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok and others.
Being above the 45 million user threshold would trigger a set of regulations required by Brussels such as the banning of targeted ads, steps to stop the spread of misinformation or propaganda and a mechanism to share data with the European Commission — the EU’s executive branch responsible for applying laws.
“We have a way through our own systems and calculations to determine how accurate the user data is,” said Thomas Regnier, commission spokesperson for digital issues,” a European Commission spokesperson told FT.
“And if we think that they haven’t been providing accurate user data, we can unilaterally designate them [as a very large platform] on the basis of our own investigation.”
The Post has sought comment from Telegram.
Durov was seen in freshly unearthed video on Thursday leaving French custody after an appearance before a judge near Paris.
He was detained Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a sweeping investigation opened this year, and released Wednesday after four days of questioning.
Investigative judges filed preliminary charges Wednesday night before springing him on $5.6 million bail. He was ordered to remain in the country and report to a police station twice a week, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The allegations against Durov, who is also a French citizen, include that his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, and that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
The first preliminary charge against him was for “complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group,’’ a crime that can lead to sentences of up to 10 years in prison and a fine exceeding half-a-million dollars, the prosecutor’s office said.
Preliminary charges under French law mean magistrates have strong reason to believe a crime was committed but allow more time for further investigation.
David-Olivier Kaminski, a lawyer for Durov, was quoted by French media as saying “it’s totally absurd to think that the person in charge of a social network could be implicated in criminal acts that don’t concern him, directly or indirectly.”
Prosecutors said Durov is “at this stage, the only person implicated in this case.”
They did not exclude the possibility that other people are being investigated, but declined to comment on other possible arrest warrants.
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