Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is banned from leaving French territory after being accused of complicity in operating an online platform that allegedly facilitated the distribution of sexual images of children, leaving the future of the messaging app that has become one of the world’s largest social media platforms uncertain.
Durov was arrested at 8 p.m. local time on Saturday after his private jet landed at an airport near Paris. He was then detained for four days as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity on Telegram. He was charged on Wednesday evening local time and banned from leaving the country, a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office said. He was released under judicial supervision, the statement said, and must post bail of 5 million euros ($5.5 million) and report to a police station in France twice a week.
The Telegram founder was investigated on a series of charges related to child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, importing crypto without prior notification and an “almost total lack” of cooperation with French authorities, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Wednesday.
French authorities noted that “Telegram is almost completely unresponsive to legal requests,” Beccuau said. “This has led JUNALCO (the national judiciary to combat organized crime) to open an investigation into the possible criminal liability of the executives of this messaging service in committing these crimes,” she said. The preliminary investigation began in February 2024 and the first investigations were coordinated by OFMIN, an agency for the prevention of violence against minors, her statement added.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform,” Telegram said on Sunday before Durov was charged. The platform, which has 900 million active users, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
Since his arrest, both the United Arab Emirates and Russia have requested consular access to Durov, who holds citizenship of both countries. It is unclear why Durov, who also received a French passport after leaving Russia, was in France. “I am not on vacation,” he said on his Telegram channel in June.
Russia claims without evidence that Durov’s arrest is an attempt by the US to exert influence on the platform through France. “Telegram is one of the few and largest Internet platforms over which the US has no influence,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, said on the app.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Durov’s detention was “in no way a political decision.” “It is the task of the judiciary to enforce the law in complete independence,” he added in a post on X. The European Commission told WIRED that the arrest was made under French criminal law and was not related to the new European regulation for tech platforms. “We are closely monitoring developments related to Telegram and are ready to cooperate with the French authorities should this be relevant,” said a spokesperson who wished to remain anonymous.
