Did not do enough to stop criminal contributions
Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested and taken into custody late Saturday shortly after a private jet landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris.
Ironically, the 39-year-old tech tycoon's arrest on Sunday prompted a call from Moscow to Paris insisting that his rights be respected. Durov's arrest was featured prominently on Russian news broadcasts.
Durov fled Moscow in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to close opposition communities on his social media platform VK, which he sold.
Elon [look at me] Musk, owner of X, criticized the arrest and claimed that freedom of expression in Europe was under threat.
Russian politician Maria Butina, who spent 15 months in a US prison for working as an unregistered Russian agent, called Durov a “political prisoner – a victim of a witch hunt by the West.”
Durov was arrested shortly after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan. A French police source said police had already identified Durov on the passenger list before the jet's arrival and arrested him on the basis of an outstanding arrest warrant in France.
“Telegram complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is in line with industry standards and is constantly improving,” Telegram said in response to the arrest.
“Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently throughout Europe. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform.”
Durov, who holds both French and UAE citizenship, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegations that Telegram's lack of moderators and lack of cooperation with police enabled a wide range of crimes, a third French police source said.
A gendarmerie cybersecurity unit and the French national anti-fraud police unit are leading the investigation. The case is being overseen by an investigating judge specialising in organised crime.
“We are waiting for a quick resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all,” Telegram said in a statement.
The encrypted application, with almost 1 billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It is one of the most important social media platforms alongside Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
