The creator of “Telegram” Pavel Durov was arrested in France, local media reported, BTA reported.
Billionaire Pavel Durov, creator and executive director of the mobile application “Telegram” was arrested this evening at Bourges airport. near Paris, Reuters reported, citing French TV channels TEF 1 and BFM.
Durov was traveling on board his private plane, TV channel TEF 1 reported on its website, adding that he was arrested on a French arrest warrant as part of a preliminary police investigation.
Both TeF 1 and BeFM reported that the investigation focused on the lack of moderator oversight in “Telegram”, which, according to the police, allowed criminal activity to take place unhindered on the social network.
The company “Telegram“ has not yet responded to Reuters' request for comment on the situation. The French Ministry of the Interior and the police also did not comment.
Te Ef 1 reports that Durov traveled from Azerbaijan and was arrested in Paris at 20:00 local time (21:00 Bulgarian).
Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Russian-born Durov, who fled his homeland in 2014 after refusing to comply with authorities' demands to shut down opposition groups on his social platform VKontakte. ;, which he later sold.
Durov, who according to the magazine “Forbes“ has a fortune of more than $15 billion, said some governments are trying to put pressure on Telegram, which currently has about 900 million active users and which he says should remain a "neutral platform" and not ;player in geopolitics“.
Meanwhile, TASS reported that the Russian embassy in Paris “is taking immediate steps” to clarify the situation around Durov.