At an airport north of Paris, French police have detained Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram.
Following his private jet’s landing at Le Bourget Airport, Mr. Durov was taken into custody, according to French media.
The 39-year-old billionaire was detained on a warrant, according to authorities, for offenses involving the well-known chat app. The probe is purportedly focused on Mr. Durov’s lack of moderation, as he is charged with neglecting to take action to prevent illicit uses of Telegram.
Regarding drug trafficking, child sex content, and fraud, the app is accused of not assisting law enforcement. Prior to this, Telegram had denied having inadequate moderation.
Born in Russia, Pavel Durov currently resides in Dubai. He is a dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates.
In particular, Telegram is well-liked in the former Soviet Union states of Russia and Ukraine.
2018 saw the app banned in Russia due to the developer’s prior refusal to provide user data. The prohibition was lifted in 2021.
The Russian Embassy in France published a message on Facebook on Sunday, stating that it was working to “clarify the reasons for the detention and to provide for the protection of Mr. Durov’s rights and facilitate consular access.”
The post went on to say that French authorities had not been assisting Russian authorities.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked on Telegram whether Western human rights groups would say nothing about Mr. Durov’s detention following their criticism of Russia for attempting to “create obstacles” to Telegram’s operations in the country in 2018.
The businessman’s arrest was denounced by a number of Russian politicians, who claimed that it demonstrated the West’s hypocrisy towards democracy and free speech.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, has frequently blogged on the problem despite drawing a lot of criticism for the moderation and content his own social media platform hosts.
Although some groups were removed from Telegram, cybersecurity experts claim that overall, the company’s approach for filtering extremist and illegal information is far less effective than those of other social media platforms and messaging applications.
According to TASS, the Russian state news agency, the Russian embassy in France has requested consular access to Durov and that his rights be respected. This was reported on Sunday.
According to the embassy, France has “avoided engagement” in the Durov crisis thus far. Durov’s attorney is in communication with Russian diplomats, the embassy stated.
