EU Commission distances itself from French Telegram spat

Arrest of Telegram CEO has nothing to do with DSA, Commission says.

The arrest of Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, on suspicion of allowing criminal activity on his platform has nothing to do with the company’s obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a spokesperson for the European Commission told Euronews on Monday.
“Criminal prosecution is not among the potential sanctions for a breach of the DSA. The DSA does not define what is illegal nor does it establish any criminal offence and can therefore not be invoked for arrests. Only national [or international] laws that define a criminal offence can be invoked,” the spokesperson said.
“We are closely monitoring the developments related to Telegram and stand ready to cooperate with the French authorities should it be relevant,” the Commission added.
Russian-born Durov was arrested after he flew into Le Bourget airport outside Paris on his private jet on Saturday night. France apprehended him on claims that the lack of moderators on Telegram allowed criminal activity, such as drug dealing and paedophile networking.
Telegram has become a popular platform for selling hard drugs because of its end-to-end encrypted messaging, which makes it difficult for law enforcement authorities to monitor the activities of vendors. Law enforcement authorities in countries including Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands said in recent months that they have noticed a rise in online drug trafficking.
Despite hitting more than 900 million active monthly users globally, the app said in February that it has 41 million monthly average users in the EU. If it passes the threshold of 45 million users per month, it will be considered a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the DSA and face the strictest transparency requirements. 
As a smaller platform, it needs to implement measures such as complaint and dispute resolution mechanisms, prevent repeat offenders from uploading illegal content, and implement transparency measures under EU rules.
Telegram said in a response published Sunday that it “abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” the statement said.
Telegram chose Belgium as its legal representation in the EU in May, meaning that the national telecom regulator BIPT is tasked with overseeing the platform’s compliance with the DSA until it becomes a VLOP.
A spokesperson for BIPT told Euronews that “the BIPT is neither a police authority nor a judicial authority and was therefore not involved in the criminal investigation by the French authorities.”
The formal designation of BIPT as the country’s regulator is still awaiting parliamentary approval, however, due to a change in government after Belgian elections in June. The Commission in July opened an infringement procedure against Belgium for not empowering the regulator.
Besides the DSA, other laws apply such as the regulation to address the dissemination of terrorist content online. Since June 2022, platforms offering services in the EU must take down terrorist content within one hour after it is identified.