The Russian billionaire Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the instant messaging app Telegram, has been arrested on Saturday at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, shortly after landing there on his private jet from Azerbaijan. His arrest has not yet been officially confirmed, but several sources in the French police, and a source in Russia, have confirmed that he is in custody, according to Reuters.
The company has been quick to issue a statement in which it recalls that “Telegram complies with EU laws, including the DSA. Its moderation is within industry standards and is continuously improving. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels to Europe frequently.«. The platform also noted that «It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuses being committed on it.«.
Before the plane landed, the police noticed that Durov was on the passenger list and acted quickly, as there was a warrant for his arrest in France. The specific reasons for his arrest are not entirely clear, but they are apparently related to the lack of moderation on Telegram, as the platform is used as a support for criminal activities of various kinds.
Durov, who has dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates, has been arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation, allegedly for enabling various offences by failing to moderate Telegram and failing to cooperate with the police. The investigation is being carried out by a cybersecurity division of the gendarmerie and another of France’s national anti-fraud police. The judge in charge of the case is specialised in organised crime.
Telegram, now based in Dubai, was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down anti-Russian communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he eventually sold.
In the case of the messaging application, which It has nearly 1 billion usershas a wide influence in Russia, Ukraine and other republics of the former Soviet Union, and has a large community of users in several countries in Europe. It is considered one of the main social media platforms behind Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
Durov, who has an estimated fortune of $15.5 billion, said last April that several governments had tried to pressure him, but that the app should be a neutral platform and not become an asset in geopolitics. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become one of the main unfiltered sources of information and communication for both sides, as well as for the politics surrounding the conflict. It is used by both the Ukrainian president and his ministers and high-ranking officials, as well as the Russian government.
During the last Easter, the Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz formally requested that the platform’s activity in Spain be closed as a precautionary measure after a complaint from several media outlets for copyright infringement. However, he retracted his decision a few days later in the face of the uproar caused by the decision. In Spain, it is used by everyone from private citizens to companies and organisations of all kinds, including political ones, to communicate internally and externally.
On the other hand, Durov has repeatedly accused US security agencies, such as the FBI, of find a way to install a rear door on the platform. But its growing popularity has led to the activity carried out on it raising suspicions in several European countries as well as Spain. It remains to be seen how this situation ends, while Telegram hopes that it will be resolved soon and without consequences, and states that “is committed to protecting the privacy of its users and to human rights, such as freedom of expression and assembly.«.
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