TThe surprise arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov as he stepped off his private jet at Paris Bourget airport over the weekend is a shocking and unprecedented event: he is accused of crimes including facilitating fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, promoting terrorism and cyberbullying.

He may not be Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but he is the CEO of a technology platform with 950 million monthly users and the first big name in the technology industry to potentially run afoul of the European Union’s increasingly strict laws and regulations in the digital sphere.

Durov, an icon among free speech advocates, has lived in Dubai since refusing to give the Kremlin data from his Facebook-like platform VKontakte (VK). Despite becoming persona non grata with the Kremlin, he has never been able to shake off suspicions among Western elites that he remains in league with the Russian state. The fact that the Russian government has called for his release and former President Dmitry Medvedev told the media that “for all our common enemies, he is now Russian” will only reinforce these suspicions.

Perhaps because he is, as Medvedev put it, a “man of the world who lives wonderfully without a fatherland,” Durov has steadfastly refused police and government demands to hand over his users’ data. In an interview with right-wing US commentator Tucker Carlson, Durov said Telegram users value its “independence,” “privacy” and “freedom.” However, French authorities accused Durov of facilitating the spread of child abuse images and providing an important organizational tool for organized crime.

By turning the other cheek to government demands, Durov’s platform became popular with those seeking to avoid the scrutiny of other apps and digital services that regularly comply with such demands. The fact that Telegram provides encrypted messaging helps with this. It is no coincidence that the riots in the UK earlier this summer were organised through Telegram groups and that footage of the violence was shared on the app and found its way to other platforms. Anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate has called Telegram the “app of choice” for racists.

Unsurprisingly, Telegram has defended Durov. “Telegram complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is in line with industry standards,” the platform said in a statement. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform.” But his arrest calls that position into question.

What does this mean for other tech moguls? Those who fear that figures like Meta’s Zuckerberg or even Musk, the owner of X – who has made it his mission to annoy European authorities and disregard their demands to crack down on disinformation – will soon be led away in chains will have to wait. They are far bigger fish than Durov.

But the Russian’s arrest may be a sign that Europe’s historic inaction – at least compared to its battle talk – may soon change. Europe has long had an antagonistic relationship with big tech companies, which insist that their attempts to impose strict regulations designed to limit the harm of social media are stifling innovation. But that antagonism is seen by Silicon Valley as little more than an annoyance: Europe has rarely followed up with action.

Durov’s arrest, however, is a sign that the EU may be starting to speak up. A package of European laws, including the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, has given the EU the muscle to rein in the excesses of big tech companies. Action and fines have already been threatened. And now that executives know that what was previously unthinkable – that they may have to be personally responsible for the actions of the companies they own – is at stake, it may well change their assessment of the risks involved. Zuckerberg probably knows that, given his high public profile, he is unlikely to end up in handcuffs. But Musk’s panicked posts on his own platform suggest he is less sure, a result of his poor relationship with European regulators.

Given the power wielded by those in charge of global platforms, it’s not a bad thing for them to have a nagging fear in the back of their minds. If an example of Durov is what is needed to make technology executives think twice before they act, then that is certainly to be welcomed.

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