Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested in Paris Amid Ongoing Investigations

Durov’s Arrest at Paris Airport

Pavel Durov, the co-founder and CEO of the mes­sag­ing app Telegram, was arrest­ed at Le Bour­get air­port in Paris on Sat­ur­day evening after get­ting off his pri­vate jet from Azer­bai­jan. The arrest was part of a pre­lim­i­nary inves­ti­ga­tion by French authorities.

Allegations Against Telegram

Law enforce­ment believes that Telegram’s lack of mod­er­a­tion and the tools it offers, such as cryp­tocur­ren­cies, make it com­plic­it in glob­al drug traf­fick­ing, pedophil­ia, and fraud. The search war­rant for Durov’s arrest was only valid if he set foot on French soil.

Durov’s Background and Telegram’s History

Durov, a 39-year-old Russ­ian-born tech entre­pre­neur, found­ed Telegram in 2013 with his broth­er Niko­lai. He fled Rus­sia in 2014 after refus­ing to hand over encrypt­ed user data to Russ­ian offi­cials or silence com­mu­ni­ties oppos­ing the gov­ern­ment, which he lat­er sold.

Telegram’s Emphasis on Privacy

Telegram empha­sizes user pri­va­cy, which has drawn crit­i­cism from many gov­ern­ments for allow­ing mil­i­tants and orga­nized crim­i­nals to com­mu­ni­cate dis­creet­ly. The plat­form has also become a major source of infor­ma­tion in the Rus­sia-Ukraine war.

Potential Charges and Consequences

Durov is expect­ed to appear before a judge on Sun­day, fac­ing charges con­nect­ed to ter­ror­ism, nar­cotics, com­plic­i­ty, fraud, mon­ey laun­der­ing, receiv­ing stolen goods, and child pornography. 

An inves­ti­ga­tor famil­iar with the case stat­ed that Durov “will end up in pre­tri­al deten­tion” due to the “incal­cu­la­ble num­ber of offens­es and crimes” com­mit­ted on his platform.

Telegram’s Neutral Stance and Durov’s Exile

Durov has main­tained that Telegram is a neu­tral social media plat­form and not a “play­er in geopol­i­tics.” He decid­ed to live in self-imposed exile, stat­ing that Rus­sia was “incom­pat­i­ble with inter­net busi­ness at the moment” when he left the coun­try in 2014.