Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained in France

Russian tech tycoon Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of popular messaging platform Telegram, has been detained in France, French authorities confirmed Sunday. His arrest is linked to alleged crimes involving the social media app, according to French media.

The Russian embassy in Paris said on Sunday morning that it had requested consular contact with Durov and demanded that French authorities “ensure the protection of his rights.”

“The French side has so far avoided cooperation on this matter,” the embassy said in a statement posted on Telegram, adding that officials were in contact with Durov’s lawyer.

Paris authorities said a statement on Durov’s detention would be issued on Monday.

Durov was once seen as Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg. However, he left the country in 2014 after losing control of his social network because he refused to hand over data on Ukrainian opposition organizations to security agencies.

French television station TF1 reported the news on Saturday evening, saying the billionaire was detained as he returned from Azerbaijan on a private jet that had landed at Bourget airport outside the capital.

Russia sent a diplomatic note demanding a meeting with Durov, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian television on Sunday, adding that the French government recognizes French citizenship as his primary citizenship.

Durov, who lives in Dubai, is a dual citizen of the United Arab Emirates and France, according to Telegram. It is unclear whether he has renounced his Russian citizenship. The 39-year-old’s net worth is estimated by Forbes at around $15.5 billion.

Moderation rules under investigation

French newspaper Le Monde reported that authorities detained Durov as part of a preliminary investigation that focused on Telegram’s lack of content moderation and the platform’s role in allegedly enabling criminal activity. The investigation concerns Telegram’s failure to cooperate with law enforcement on issues ranging from child pornography to cybercrime and organized crime, the newspaper reported.

The French interior and justice ministries did not respond to requests for comment. Telegram also did not respond to a message seeking the company’s response.

The app’s unmoderated online messaging services have become a platform for groups publishing content that could be banned on other major social networks, from right-wing groups to organised crime and militant groups.

Telegram is also popular with criminal and terrorist groups due to its encrypted messages, which make it difficult for law enforcement to monitor any illegal activities.

Hamas, for example, has released gruesome first-hand footage of the Gaza conflict to help build a narrative that its fighters are freedom fighters who justified the killing and kidnapping of Israeli civilians. Harrowing footage from body-worn GoPro cameras flooded Telegram channels during the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel. (The app also hosts groups that claim the attacks were a “false flag” operation orchestrated by Israel.)

Russia tried to block Telegram in 2018 over Durov’s refusal to share encryption keys and access user messages with the country’s security services under a law passed by the Russian government to curb internet freedom. But Russia has also used online messaging service Telegram to post regular battlefield updates — sometimes graphic and misleading — since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have offered their own version of the conflict.

Other governments have considered banning Telegram, also citing concerns about content moderation. The German government, for example, considered the option during the 2022 coronavirus vaccine debate, citing Telegram’s role in spreading anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.

In previous interviews with The Washington Post, Western officials have said that Telegram has also been a useful tool for Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency to recruit for sabotage campaigns in Europe, including attempts to disrupt and surveil transport lines used by NATO to supply Ukraine. In addition, Telegram has become a major platform for Russia to spread disinformation in Europe and Ukraine, a senior European security official told The Post.

Durov, in turn, responded to the allegations by arguing that his app, which had over 900 million monthly active users in 2024, should remain neutral and refrain from geopolitics.

Local encryption

Durov has alienated many potential allies by attacking the security of other encrypted services and dismissing criticism of Telegram’s native encryption, John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, told The Post on Saturday. “At the same time, it’s a really scary precedent to see a CEO arrested for content,” he said.

Russian officials and state media commentators responded immediately to Durov’s detention to lash out at the West, denouncing “double standards” on freedom of speech.

“The French continue to fight for ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘European values,’” wrote Russian parliamentarian Andrei Klishas on Telegram.

Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said Durov’s detention was an example of “very disturbing totalitarian tendencies in countries that previously called themselves democratic.”

“Some naive people still do not understand that if they play a more or less visible role in the international information space, it is not safe for them to visit countries that are moving towards much more totalitarian societies,” Ulyanov wrote on the X portal.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who welcomed Zuckerberg to Russia in 2012, said Durov’s detention should serve as a warning to all Russian businessmen fleeing Russia because of pressure from the Kremlin.

“(Durov) believed his biggest problems were in Russia, so he left and obtained citizenship and residence permits in other countries,” Medvedev, who has become one of Russia’s most powerful anti-Western voices, wrote in a Telegram post. “He wanted to be a brilliant ‘man of the world,’ living well without a homeland.”

The outrage of the Russian political elite was reflected in the voices of some representatives of the American right.

X owner Elon Musk called Durov’s arrest a “First Amendment advertisement,” adding: “Viewpoint: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.”

“Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram,” right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson, who recently interviewed Durov for his X-based show, wrote on X on Saturday. “But ultimately, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for giving the public free speech. It was a Western country, an ally of the Biden administration and an enthusiastic NATO member, who locked him up.”

Durov told Carlson in that interview that he fled Russia and resigned from his successful social technology company, VKontakte — which was Russia’s answer to Facebook — because of pressure from the Kremlin to release personal information about Ukrainian pro-democracy protesters during the 2014 Maidan revolution. But he also said he felt pressure from the U.S. government to give its law enforcement agencies a backdoor into Telegram.

“We always drew too much attention to ourselves … whenever we came to the U.S.,” Durov told Carlson.

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Joseph Menn, Catherine Belton and Naomi Nix contributed to the preparation of this report.