The bewildering politics of Telegram

When Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested late Saturday at an airport outside Paris, accused of complicity in illegal online behavior and refusing to disclose information to authorities, right-leaning American political figures leapt to his defense, including Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Marjorie Taylor-Greene.

Left-leaning civil liberties groups also took Telegram’s side — to a point.

The arrest is casting a spotlight on the messy global status of a messaging app whose sprawling reach and commitment to free speech have earned it a rotating cast of friends and enemies in the political arena, and whose multinational structure raises tough questions about enforcing digital rules in the age of social media.

Telegram’s radical free speech position puts it in an unusual position among global social apps. Since Durov founded Telegram more than a decade ago, the theatrical and enigmatic Russian entrepreneur has become a primary character in the evolving global war over how wide-open online communication should be.