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Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov delivers a keynote speech during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 23, 2016. REUTERS
Durov was due to appear in court on Sunday
French police arrested Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of Telegram, at an airport near Paris on Saturday for suspected crimes related to the messaging app.
The 39-year-old was arrested on Saturday evening at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital. He had just arrived from Baku, Azerbaijan. Durov was due to appear in court on Sunday.
The French agency OFMIN, which is responsible for preventing violence against minors, had issued an arrest warrant against Durov as the coordinating body in a preliminary investigation into alleged crimes such as fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and the promotion of terrorism.
Durov is suspected of not taking measures to curb criminal use of his platform. “End Telegram’s impunity,” said one of the investigators, adding that they were surprised that Durov came to Paris knowing he was a wanted man.
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Telegram is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union and is considered one of the most important social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat. The number of users is expected to reach the one billion mark next year.
Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Russian-born Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VK, which he later sold.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered – and sometimes graphic and misleading – content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.
The app has become the preferred means of communication for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his officials. The Kremlin and the Russian government also use it to spread their messages. It has also become one of the few places where Russians can get news about the war.
Durov, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, said some governments had tried to put pressure on him, but the app, which now has 900 million active users, should remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics.”
(With agency contributions)
