Aug. 25 (UPI) – Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested by French police after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport north of Paris on Saturday evening.
The 39-year-old billionaire was arrested on a warrant for crimes related to his messaging app, which has more than 900 million users. Durov is accused of failing to take action to curb criminal use of Telegram, including drug trafficking, sexual content involving children and fraud, officials said.
He allegedly failed to cooperate with law enforcement and failed to moderate the website.
Durov, who was born in Russia and lives in Dubai, holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
He founded Telegram in 2013 and left Russia a year later after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, then sold the platform.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked on Telegram whether Western human rights nongovernmental organizations would remain silent on Durov’s arrest after criticizing Russia’s decision to impose “stoning operations” on Telegram’s work in Russia in 2018.
Telegram ranks behind social media apps X, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X, called the news the latest example of “dangerous times” and listed the measures taken by various countries.
“Free speech is under attack all over the world. Now is the time to fight. If they win, there will be no turning back,” he wrote.
His message was included alongside information about SpaceX, which he also owns.
Robert F. Kennedy, the independent presidential candidate who endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, wrote on X: “The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent.”
Actor William Shatner celebrated Durov’s arrest.
“The CEO of @telegram was arrested in France today for not moderating his platform. Good. They are doing nothing to prevent fraud and scams. I am sick of the scammers using this platform to pretend to be me,” he wrote.
