CEO of messaging app Telegram arrested at Paris airport, French media report

NICE, France (AP) — The founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram was detained at a Paris airport on an arrest warrant alleging that his platform was being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other crimes, French media reported Sunday.

Pavel Durov, a French-Russian citizen, was detained at Paris-Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after landing in France from Azerbaijan, television stations LCI and TF1 reported.

Investigators from the National Anti-Fraud Office, which is part of the French customs office, notified Durov, 39, that he had been placed in police custody, the broadcaster said.

Durov’s representative could not be reached for comment.

French prosecutors declined to comment on Durov’s arrest when contacted by The Associated Press on Sunday, in line with the ongoing investigation.

French media reported that Durov’s arrest warrant was issued by France at the request of a special unit in the country’s interior ministry responsible for investigating crimes against minors. These include online sexual exploitation, such as possession and distribution of child sexual abuse content, and grooming for sexual purposes.

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Telegram was founded by Durov and his brother in response to the Russian government’s crackdown on the mass pro-democracy protests that rocked Moscow in late 2011 and 2012.

The demonstrations prompted Russian authorities to clamp down on digital space, introducing laws forcing internet providers to block websites and mobile operators to keep call and message records that could be shared with security services.

In an increasingly repressive environment, Telegram and its pro-privacy rhetoric offered Russians a convenient way to communicate and share news. In 2018, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor took action to block Telegram over its refusal to hand over encryption keys, but ultimately failed to fully restrict access to the app.

Telegram continued to be widely used — including by government institutions — and the ban was lifted two years later. In March 2024, Roskomnadzor reported that Telegram had cooperated with the Russian government to some extent and removed more than 256,000 posts with banned content at Roskomnadzor’s request.

Telegram remains a popular news source in Ukraine, used by media and officials alike to exchange information about the war and to warn of missile attacks and airstrikes.

Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Sunday.

A French judicial official suggested Durov could appear before a judge on Sunday to determine whether he will remain in custody. The official was not authorized to publicly disclose his name while the investigation is ongoing.

“If the suspect is to be brought before a judge today, it will only be in the context of a possible extension of his police detention — a decision that must be made and communicated by the investigating judge,” the official said.

Western governments have frequently criticized Telegram for its lack of content moderation on the messaging service, which experts say opens the platform to being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and enabling the sharing of content related to the sexual exploitation of minors.

Compared to other messaging platforms, Telegram is “less secure and less stringent in terms of policies and detection of illegal content,” said David Thiel, a researcher at Stanford University who has studied the use of online platforms to exploit children for the Internet Observatory.

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Additionally, Telegram “appears to be largely unresponsive to law enforcement reports,” Thiel said, adding that the WhatsApp messaging service “filed over 1.3 million CyberTipline reports in 2023, and Telegram did not file any.”

In 2022, Germany imposed fines totaling €5.125 million ($5 million) on Telegram operators for failing to comply with German law. The Federal Office of Justice found that Telegram FZ-LLC had not established a lawful way to report illegal content or designated an entity in Germany that would receive official communications.

Both requirements are required under German law regulating the activities of large internet platforms.

Last year, Brazil temporarily suspended Telegram for failing to release data on neo-Nazi activity in connection with a police investigation into November school shootings.

Russian officials expressed outrage over Durov’s arrest, with some saying the West was applying double standards when it came to freedom of speech.

“In 2018, a group of 26 non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists and others, condemned the decision of the Russian court to block Telegram,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

“Do you think this time they will appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release?” Zakharova wrote in a post on her private Telegram account.

Zakharova told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that officials at the Russian embassy in Paris had asked for the opportunity to contact Durov, but added that the French authorities consider Durov’s French citizenship to be his primary one.

In a statement to the AP earlier this month, Telegram said it actively combats misuse of its platform.

“Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring and user reporting to remove content that violates Telegram’s terms of service. Millions of pieces of harmful content are removed every day,” the company said.

Associated Press writers Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, and Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, contributed to this report.