Telegram Founder's Charges Raise Alarm Over Risks for Execs

France's criminal charges against the founder of the online communications tool Telegram have set off alarms over whether American tech executives might risk arrest overseas amid growing scrutiny of the content that tech platforms tolerate, the New York Times reports. For years, internet company executives rarely faced personal liability in Western democracies for what took place on their platforms. But as law enforcement agencies, regulators and policymakers ramp up scrutiny of online platforms and exchanges, they are increasingly considering when to hold company leaders directly responsible. This month, X closed its Brazil operations after one of its executives was threatened with arrest for not taking down certain content. Last year, Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, pleaded guilty to federal money-laundering violations that took place on his cryptocurrency platform. In 2021, Twitter executives in India faced arrest over posts that the government wanted removed from the site.

The arrest last weekend of Telegram's Pavel Durov, followed by his indictment on Wednesday, remains an outlier, at least for now. Historically, companies have been held responsible for a platform’s transgressions, rather than individuals. Legally, the bar is high in the United States and Europe to prosecute individuals for activities at their companies, especially with U.S. laws like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects internet platforms from being responsible for harmful speech. But the threshold for holding executives liable for what takes place on their sites is lowering in specific areas, particularly child safety, said TJ McIntyre⁩, an associate professor at University College Dublin’s School of Law. Last year, Britain passed an online safety law that can hold tech leaders personally responsible if their company is made aware of content that risks child safety and systematically fails to remove it. Even Section 230 doesn’t apply to some forms of outlawed speech, such as child sexual abuse. In China, Russia and other authoritarian countries, U.S. tech companies have sometimes pulled out their employees to prevent them from being arrested. The concern is employees will be used as leverage to force companies to do things like remove content unfavorable to the government.