Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France | Technology News

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has been arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris for alleged offences related to his messaging app.

Local sources said on Sunday that Durov, 39, had been travelling on his private jet from Azerbaijan and that a French arrest warrant targeted him as part of a preliminary investigation.

The offences levelled at Durov by France’s OFMIN, an agency that deals with the prevention of violence against minors, include fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and organised crime, according to the AFP news agency, which quoted officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Franco-Russian billionaire is also accused of failing to take action against the harmful use of Telegram.

Durov faces possible indictment on Sunday, according to French media.

TF1 TV and BFM TV, both quoting unidentified sources, said the investigation was focused on a lack of moderators and that police considered that this situation allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app.

One of the investigators told AFP they were surprised Durov entered France despite the warrant against him, adding “enough of Telegram’s impunity”.

Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in France has demanded consular access to Durov and demanded that his rights be ensured, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Sunday.

The embassy said France has so far “avoided engagement” on the situation with Durov. Russian diplomats are in contact with Durov’s lawyer, the embassy said.

Russia-Ukraine war

With its desirable encryption features, Telegram, whose user base is close to one billion, was created by Durov and his brother in 2013 in Russia.

He fled the country in 2014 and travelled across the globe to search for a home for his company, including the German capital, Berlin, and San Francisco in the United States.

But after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram became the main source of unfiltered and sometimes graphic content from both warring parties.

The app is heavily used by Russian and Ukrainian officials, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The platform has become what some analysts call ‘a virtual battlefield’ for the war, used heavily by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials, as well as the Russian government.

Moreover, due to Telegram’s increasing popularity, several countries in Europe, including France, have scrutinised the app due to security and data breach concerns.

Russia’s representative to international organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, accused France of acting as a “totalitarian” society.

“Some naive persons still don’t understand that if they play more or less visible role in international information space it is not safe for them to visit countries which move towards much more totalitarian societies,” Ulyanov wrote on X.

Several Russian bloggers have called for protests outside French embassies worldwide.

But Ben Aris, editor in chief of bne IntelliNews told Al Jazeera the Durov is also in trouble in Russia since he refused to give the Kremlin access to the electronic keys which would let them read private Telegram messages.

Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order to grant state security services access to its users’ encrypted messages.

“Durov was in Azerbaijan where Putin recently was… he is probably trying to lobby Putin to stop the block of Telegram in the country,” Aris said.

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

Telegram did not immediately respond and the French Ministry of the Interior and police had no comment, the Reuters news agency said.