Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and chief executive of messaging app Telegram, was arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV and BFM TV reported, citing unnamed sources.
Both TF1 and BFM said the investigation focused on the lack of moderators on Telegram and that police believed this situation allowed criminal activity to continue undeterred on the messaging app.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The French interior ministry and police did not comment. Russia, which has tried to ban Telegram in the past, said it was taking steps to “clarify” Durov's situation.
What is known about Durov and Telegram:
* Durov, 39, a Russian-born man, is the founder and owner of the messaging app Telegram, a free platform that competes with other social media platforms such as Facebook's WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat. The platform aims to surpass 1 billion monthly active users within a year.
* Telegram has influence in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It has become a key source of information about Russia's war in Ukraine, widely used by officials in both Moscow and Kiev. Some analysts call the app “a virtual battlefield” for the war.
* Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold.
* Durov became a French citizen in August 2021. He moved with Telegram to Dubai in 2017 and, according to French media, also received citizenship of the United Arab Emirates. He is also a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis, a two-island nation in the Caribbean, according to media reports.
* Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order allowing state security services to access its users’ encrypted messages. The move had little effect on Telegram’s availability there, but it sparked mass protests in Moscow and criticism from NGOs.
* However, Telegram’s growing popularity has drawn scrutiny from several European countries, including France, over security and data breach concerns. In May, EU tech regulators said they were in touch with Telegram as it neared a key usage criterion that could make it subject to stricter requirements under landmark EU legislation on online content.
* “I'd rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Durov told American journalist Tucker Carlson in April of his departure from Russia and search for a home for his company, which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
