Telegram: CEO has ‘nothing to hide’ after arrest in France

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform,” said an anonymous statement from the company, published on Sunday on its official channel on the Telegram app. French officials have confirmed to several media outlets that Durov was arrested as part of a police investigation into criminal activity on the social network.

Although Telegram is not encrypted by default, the app is viewed by many as a private, censorship-free alternative to other social networks due to its largely passive approach to moderation. “Nearly a billion users worldwide use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of important information,” the company said in a statement. “We look forward to a speedy resolution of this situation.”

Telegram is also a key source of information in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, with Russia apparently very interested in what happens to Durov. The Russian embassy in Paris says the French government has so far not granted it access to Durov, who was born in Russia and holds both French and UAE passports, where Telegram is headquartered.

In a rare interview with Tucker Carlson in April, Durov said Telegram's goal is to be a “neutral” platform and to resist governments' calls for moderation. He said he mostly avoids traveling to “big, geopolitical” countries where the company gets “too much attention.” “I travel to places that I'm confident are consistent with what we do and our values.”