The bosses of social media giants such as Meta and Google have been largely untouchable even as their platforms have taken an ever tighter grip on the lives of billions of users.
Despite scandal after scandal — from Instagram being accused of wilfully destroying the mental health of young girls to Google allegedly running a monopoly — the chief executives of big technology companies have mostly avoided serious repercussions.
That may have changed with the arrest of Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, who was charged on Wednesday with aiding and abetting crimes including child abuse, drug trafficking and money laundering.
Critics have long complained that major online platforms do not do enough to police the content they allow to be posted and spread online.