Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s lawyer calls charges “ridiculous”

Telegram boss Pavel Durov was arrested by French police at an airport north of Paris.

French media reported that Mr Durov was arrested after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport.

According to authorities, the 39-year-old billionaire was arrested on a warrant for crimes related to the popular messaging app. The investigation reportedly centers on a lack of moderation. Mr. Durov is accused of failing to take measures to curb the criminal use of Telegram.

The app has been accused of a lack of cooperation with law enforcement on drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud. Telegram has previously denied that it does not have adequate moderation.

Pavel Durov was born in Russia and lives in Dubai. He holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.

Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and the states of the former Soviet Union.

The app was banned in Russia in 2018 after it previously refused to hand over user data. The ban was lifted in 2021.

Telegram is is considered one of the most important social media platforms to Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.

Mr. Durov founded Telegram in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to close opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he sold.

On Sunday, the Russian embassy in France wrote on Facebook that it was trying to “clarify the reasons for the detention, ensure the protection of Mr. Durov's rights and facilitate consular access.”

The article went on to say that French authorities had not cooperated with Russian officials.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked on Telegram whether Western human rights NGOs would remain silent on Mr Durov's arrest after criticising Russia's decision to impose “stoning operations” on Telegram's work in Russia in 2018.

Several Russian politicians condemned the businessman's arrest, saying it showed that the West had double standards when it came to freedom of expression and democracy.

American Whistleblower Edward Snowdenwho has lived in exile in Russia since 2013, said on X that Mr Durov's arrest was “an attack on the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and association”.

X owner Elon Musk, who has faced heavy criticism for his moderation and the material hosted on his own social media site, has repeatedly published posts about the situation.

He captioned one post with the hashtag #freepavel and in another he wrote: “[Pointofview:It's2030inEuropeandyou'rebeingexecutedforlikingameme”[Pointofview:It's2030inEuropeandyou'rebeingexecutedforlikingameme”[Standpunkt:EsistdasJahr2030inEuropaundSiewerdenhingerichtetweilSieeinMemegelikedhaben“[Pointofview:It’s2030inEuropeandyou’rebeingexecutedforlikingameme”

Telegram allows groups with up to 200,000 members, which critics say facilitates the spread of false information and the exchange of conspiracy-theoretical, neo-Nazi, pedophile or terrorist content.

In the UK, the app came under criticism for hosting far-right channels that were instrumental in organising violent riots in English cities earlier this month.

Although Telegram has removed some groups, overall its system for moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies and messaging apps, cybersecurity experts say.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Pavel Durov's lawyer. It has been updated to remove the reference.