The Russian founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on Saturday night, in line with a number of French media reviews.
Durov, who was needed in France, was taken into police custody, broadcasters TF1 and BFMTV reported, citing investigators.
He had arrived within the nation from Azerbaijan at Le Bourget Airport close to Paris.
TF1 reported {that a} preliminary investigation might be initiated towards Durov as early as Sunday.
Investigators from the National Anti-Fraud Office, hooked up to the French customs division, notified Durov that he was being positioned in police custody, the broadcasters mentioned.
French prosecutors declined to touch upon Durov’s arrest when contacted by The Associated Press (AP) on Sunday, consistent with laws throughout an ongoing investigation.
French media reported that Durov, 39, was the topic of an arrest warrant issued by France primarily based on allegations that his encrypted platform has been used for cash laundering, drug trafficking and permitting the sharing of content material linked to sexual exploitation of minors.
Western governments have usually criticized Telegram for its lack of content material moderating on the messaging service.
Russian authorities officers expressed outrage at Durov’s arrest, with some highlighting the West’s double requirements on freedom of speech.
“In 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, condemned the Russian court’s decision to block Telegram,” mentioned Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Do you think this time they’ll appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release?” Zakharova mentioned in a submit on her private Telegram account.
Durov, who additionally based the Russian social media platform VKontakte, created Telegram alongside his brother Nikolai.
The encrypted Telegram, with near 1 billion customers, is especially influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the previous Soviet Union. It is ranked as one of many main social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Russian-born Durov based Telegram along with his brother in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to adjust to authorities calls for to close down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he bought.
“I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone,” Durov instructed U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his exit from Russia and seek for a house for his firm which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has turn out to be the principle supply of unfiltered – and typically graphic and deceptive – content material from each side in regards to the warfare and the politics surrounding the battle.
The platform has turn out to be what some analysts name “a virtual battlefield” for the warfare, used closely by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officers, in addition to the Russian authorities.
‘Neutral platform’
TF1 mentioned Dubai-based Durov had been touring from Azerbaijan and was arrested at round 8 p.m. (6 p.m. GMT).
Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, mentioned some governments had sought to stress him however the app ought to stay a “neutral platform” and never a “player in geopolitics.”
Telegram’s rising recognition, nonetheless, has prompted scrutiny from a number of international locations in Europe, together with France, on safety and knowledge breach issues.
Russia’s consultant to worldwide organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, and several other different Russian politicians had been fast on Sunday to accuse France of appearing as “a dictatorship” – the identical criticism that Moscow confronted when placing calls for on Durov in 2014 and attempting to ban Telegram in 2018.
“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.
Elon Musk, the billionaire proprietor of X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter, mentioned after reviews of Durov’s detention: “It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who on Friday deserted his U.S. presidential marketing campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump, mentioned on X after the reviews that the necessity to defend free speech, “has never been more urgent.”
Several Russian bloggers referred to as for protests at French Embassies all through the world at midday on Sunday, in line with a Reuters report.
Source: www.dailysabah.com