Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France | Know-how Information

Russian Overseas Ministry is working to ‘make clear’ the detention of the 39-year-old founder and CEO of Telegram.

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has been arrested at Bourget airport exterior Paris for alleged offences associated to his messaging app, French media experiences.

Native sources mentioned on Sunday that Durov, 39, had been travelling on his non-public jet from Azerbaijan and {that a} French arrest warrant focused him as a part of a preliminary investigation.

The offences levelled at Durov by France’s OFMIN, an company that offers with the prevention of violence towards minors, embrace fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and organised crime, in accordance with the AFP information company, which quoted officers talking on situation of anonymity.

The Franco-Russian billionaire can also be accused of failing to take motion towards the dangerous use of Telegram.

Durov faces attainable indictment on Sunday, in accordance with French media.

TF1 TV and BFM TV, each quoting unidentified sources, mentioned the investigation was centered on a scarcity of moderators and that police thought-about that this case allowed felony exercise to go on undeterred on the messaging app.

One of many investigators advised AFP they had been shocked Durov entered France regardless of the warrant towards him, including “sufficient of Telegram’s impunity”.

With its fascinating encryption options, Telegram, whose consumer base is shut to 1 billion, was created by Durov and his brother in 2013 in Russia.

He fled the nation in 2014 and travelled throughout the globe to seek for a house for his firm, together with the German capital, Berlin, and San Francisco in the USA.

Russia-Ukraine conflict

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram turned the principle supply of unfiltered and generally graphic content material from each combatants.

The app is closely utilized by Russian and Ukrainian officers, together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Nevertheless, as a result of Telegram’s growing reputation, a number of international locations in Europe, together with France, have scrutinised the app as a result of safety and knowledge breach considerations.

Russia’s consultant to worldwide organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, accused France of appearing as a “totalitarian” society.

“Some naive individuals nonetheless don’t perceive that in the event that they play kind of seen position in worldwide data area it isn’t protected for them to go to international locations which transfer in direction of way more totalitarian societies,” Ulyanov wrote on X.

A number of Russian bloggers have referred to as for protests exterior French embassies worldwide.

Tech mogul and billionaire Elon Musk additionally criticised Durov’s arrest, saying, “It’s 2030 in Europe, and also you’re being executed for liking a meme.”

Telegram didn’t instantly reply and the French Ministry of the Inside and police had no remark, the Reuters information company mentioned.

Russia, which has prior to now tried to ban Telegram, mentioned it was taking steps to “make clear” Durov’s scenario, the TASS information company reported.