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French authorities on Saturday arrested Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of the online communications platform Telegram, on suspicion of distributing illegal material via the messaging app, according to French news reports.
Durov, a Russian-born French and Emirati entrepreneur, was He was travelling from Azerbaijan on his private jet when he was arrested at Le Bourget airport near Paris. Seeking Alpha could not immediately confirm the arrest.
The Russian embassy in France said in a statement on Sunday that it had asked the French authorities for further information on the arrest.
Telegram has more than 900 million users worldwide and has been the focus of law enforcement agencies around the world for years as terrorist groups, drug smugglers, arms dealers and extremist groups use the app for encrypted communications.
As part of their efforts to combat extremism and disinformation, countries including the European Union have increased pressure on social media companies.
Durov’s net worth was estimated by Bloomberg at over $9 billion.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur has largely avoided public scrutiny, unlike executives of other digital platforms such as Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), Elon Musk of X, Shou Chew of TikTok (BDNCE) and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG).
