Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last weekend, and a few days later was charged with a number of offenses connected to criminal activity on Telegram. There’s a lot about this story we don’t yet know, but this week’s events seem to signal a shift in how countries and governments plan to hold executives accountable for what happens on their platforms.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and make sense of what happened here — and what might happen next. We talk about what makes Telegram different from WhatsApp or Facebook, the ways Durov set up and operated the company that may have made this confrontation inevitable, and whether this will have a ripple effect on the rest of the social internet. Or even the rest of the internet as a whole.
After that, we run down some of the week in regulatory and litigation news, which is more exciting than it sounds! Yelp sued Google after years of complaints, TikTok is headed to court over the blackout challenge, and California’s AI safety bill is headed to the governor’s desk. As Nilay likes to say, there are a lot of really important PDFs floating around right now. We have some thoughts on the PDFs.
Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about AI deepfakes, smart home buyouts, where-to-watch guides, AI gadgets, Bluetooth hair stylers, image captions, and the upcoming Apple event.
Also, programming note: we’re off on Tuesday, and the third episode in our productivity miniseries will be next Sunday, not this Sunday. So we’ll see you next Friday!
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Telegram:
- French authorities arrest Telegram’s CEO
- Telegram says CEO has ‘nothing to hide’ after being arrested in France
- Why the Telegram CEO’s arrest is such a big deal
- Telegram CEO charged in French criminal investigation
- French prosecutors explain why they arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov
- From The New York Times: Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms?
- From The Washington Post: Telegram’s Pavel Durov built a haven for free speech — and child predators
- From Platformer: How Telegram played itself
And in legal and regulatory news:
And in the lightning round:
- Google Gemini will let you create AI-generated people again
- xAI’s new Grok image generator floods X with controversial AI fakes
- Smart home company Brilliant has found a buyer
- ESPN ‘Where to Watch’ feature helps find where to stream sporting events
- Plaud’s NotePin is an AI wearable for summarizing meetings and taking voice notes
- The maker of the Palma has a new cheaper e-reader
- The Dyson Airwrap i.d. is a smarter hair curler
- Snapchat finally launched an iPad app
- Instagram adds what photos have always needed: words
- Apple’s iPhone 16 launch event is set for September
