Pavel Durov, billionaire, co-founder and CEO of messenger Telegram, faced arrest at Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday night.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur, born in Russia, resides in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates, reportedly arrested on the warrant for offences related to the popular messaging app. He will appear in court on Sunday. France’s interior ministry and police had no comment.
Durov was flying aboard his private jet from Azerbaijan, TV channel TF1 said on its website, adding that he was arrested in France at 6:00 p.m. on a warrant as part of a preliminary police investigation.
TF1 and BFM believe the investigation centred on a shortage of moderators on Telegram. Police suppose that this situation allowed criminal activity to continue unhindered on the messaging app, as the use of the social network led to the messenger being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and the distribution of paedophilic content.
France’s Justice Ministry (OFMIN), the agency tasked with preventing violence against minors, in turn issued the arrest warrant for Durov as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged crimes including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and terrorist propaganda, a source close to the case said. “Enough of Telegram’s impunity,” said one of the investigators.
Telegram is considered one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat and has about a billion users, particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. However, Telegram’s growing popularity around the world has drawn scrutiny from several countries in Europe, including France, due to security concerns and data leaks.
Russia’s representative to international organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, and several other Russian politicians on Sunday accused France of restricting freedom of speech. This contrasts particularly with the stance of the European Union, which regularly criticises free speech bans in other countries. The Russian Embassy in France is taking “immediate steps” to clarify the situation, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.
Elon Musk, US tech entrepreneur and owner of X, reacted to Durov’s detention by posting a message on his official account, also questioning freedom of speech in the European Union: “It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.”
Pavel Durov himself has repeatedly said that some governments have tried to pressure him, but the app should remain a ‘neutral platform’ and not a ‘player in geopolitics’.
“I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone,” Durov told US journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his exit from Russia and search for a home for his company which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco. Forbes estimates the entrepreneur’s fortune at $15.5 billion.
