- Pavel Durov was arrested and detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late Saturday.
- The 39 tech billionaire’s arrest prompted Moscow to warn Paris on Sunday that he deserved criticism from X owner Elon Musk.
OUR TAKE
Telegram says it has always been committed to protecting user privacy and human rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly.But since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become a major source of unfiltered, sometimes graphic and misleading content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict. In this regard, the authorities should improve the efficiency of cyberenvironmental governance and provide a healthy information environment.
— Iydia Ding, BTW reporter
What happened
France has not officially confirmed the arrest, but three sources said Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire and founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested and detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late Saturday. The 39-year-old tech billionaire’s arrest prompted Moscow to warn Paris on Sunday that he deserved criticism from X owner Elon Musk, who said freedom of speech in Europe was under attack. Musk, the billionaire owner of social media platform X, said after learning of reports of Durov’s detention that it’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a mould.
Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was part of a preliminary police investigation that allegedly allowed widespread criminal behaviour due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of co-operation with police, a French police source said. The source said the cybersecurity gendarmerie and the French national anti-fraud police force were leading the investigation, adding that investigating judges specialise in organised crime.
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Why it’s important
Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which was sold.The crypto app, which has nearly 1 billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet republics. It is ranked as one of the leading social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube and WeChat.
Telegram says it has been committed to protecting user privacy and human rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly. But since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become a major source of unfiltered, sometimes graphic and misleading content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict. Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order allowing state security services access to its users’ encrypted messages. However, the ban has sparked mass protests and criticism from NGOs in Moscow. In this regard, the relevant authorities should improve the efficiency of online environmental governance and provide a healthy information environment.
