The founder of the Telegram messaging app, Pavel Durov, who had an arrest warrant issued against him, was detained by the French authorities at an airport outside Paris. Officers from France's anti-fraud office, attached to French customs, took the French-Russian billionaire into custody on Saturday evening after he arrived at Bourge
Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram. Pic/AFP
Pavel Durov, the 39-year-old founder of messaging app Telegram, was detained by the French authorities at an airport outside Paris. Durov had an arrest warrant issued against him over charges of lack of moderation on Telegram. The social media app is purportedly used for various offences, such as money laundering, drug trafficking and sharing pedophilic content, news agency ANI reported.
Officers from France's anti-fraud office, attached to French customs, took the French-Russian billionaire into custody on Saturday evening after he arrived at Bourget Airport on a flight from Azerbaijan, reported CNN-affiliated BFMTV.
According to BFMTV, the Telegram founder had not regularly travelled to France and Europe from the time the arrest warrant was issued.
Authorities in France issued the arrest warrant against Durov on charges of complicity in drug trafficking, crimes against children and fraud owing to the lack of moderation on Telegram and his failure to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, the Moscow Times reported, citing French local media.
The Russian-born founder of Telegram, which according to him has more than 900 million users, is currently based in Dubai. Durov became a naturalised French citizen in August 2021.
He is also the founder of the VKontakte social network based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Durov left Russia in 2014 after he refused to share VKontakte users' data with the country's security services. Later, Russia unsuccessfully attempted to block Telegram over its refusal to provide users' online communications to the security services.
Telegram is widely used by Russian speakers. It has become a key platform for sharing information about the war in Ukraine and is reportedly used by the Russian military to communicate.
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According to Durov, Telegram offers end-to-end encrypted messaging and users can also set up 'channels' to disseminate information quickly to followers. It has found popularity among those keen to evade the snooping eyes of governments, whether they be criminals, terrorists or protestors battling authoritarian regimes.
In recent years, Durov has publicly rubbished the security standards of competitors, particularly WhatsApp, which he has claimed is "dangerous" to use. By contrast, he has positioned Telegram as a plucky upstart determined to safeguard the privacy of its users at all costs.
(With ANI inputs)
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