HomeWorldEuropeTelegram Messaging App CEO Arrested in France

Telegram Messaging App CEO Arrested in France

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Paris, 26 August 2024 (TDI): Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at the Bourget airport in Paris on Saturday evening.
Telegram, especillay influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union, is ranked as one of the key social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Wechat. It aims to hit one billion users in the upcoming year.

Based in Dubai, Telegram was set up by Russian-born Durov. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government orders to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he sold.

Durov was traveling aboard his private plane, TF1 said on its website, adding he had been hit by an arrest warrant in France as part of a preliminary police probe.

TF1 and BFM both said the probe was focused on a lack of moderators on Telegram, and that police considered that this situation allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the app.

After Russia launched its aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered — and sometimes graphic and misleading — content from both sides about the conflict and the politics surrounding the war.

Telegram has become preferred mean of communications for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his officials. Moscow and the Russian government also use it to disseminate their news. It has also become one of the few platforms where Russians can access news about the war.

TF1 said Durov had been traveling from Azerbaijan and was apprehended at around 20:00 (18:00 GMT).

Also Read More: Telegram unblocks Ukraine’s security chatbots

Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at 15.5 billion dollars, said some governments had sought to pressure him but the app, which has now nine hundred million active users, should remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics.”

Russia’s embassy in France told the Russian media that it was not contacted by Durov’s team after the reports of the arrest, but it was taking “immediate” measures to clarify the situation.

 

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