Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France

Pavel Durov, a Russian-French billionaire who founded and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested on Saturday evening at Bourget airport near Paris, television stations TF1 TV and BFM TV reported, citing unnamed sources.
Durov was traveling on a private jet, TF1 reported on its website, adding that a warrant for his arrest had been issued in France as part of a preliminary police investigation.
Both TF1 and BFM said the investigation focused on the lack of moderators at Telegram and police believed the situation allowed for unrestricted criminal activity on the messaging app.
According to French media, Durov could be charged on Sunday.
Encrypted Telegram, with nearly a billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet republics. It is ranked as one of the main social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The French Interior Ministry and police did not comment.
Russian-born Durov founded Telegram with his brother in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he sold.
“I’d rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Durov told American journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his departure from Russia and search for a headquarters for his company, which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
After Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram became a major source of unfiltered — and at times graphic and misleading — bipartisan content about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.
The platform has become, as some analysts say, a “virtual battlefield” of war, intensively used by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his officials, as well as by the Russian government.
Telegram – which allows users to avoid official scrutiny – has also become one of the few places where Russians can access independent news about the war after the Kremlin tightened restrictions on independent media following the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the embassy in Paris was investigating the situation around Durov and appealed to Western non-governmental organizations to demand his release.