Telegram founder Durov arrested in France over platform moderation

Pavel Durov, the Russian-French billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Bourget Airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, according to TF1 TV and BFM TV, which cited unidentified sources. Durov was traveling on his private jet, TF1 reported, adding that he was the subject of an arrest warrant in France as part of a preliminary police investigation.

The investigation is reportedly focused on the lack of moderation on Telegram, which authorities believe has allowed criminal activities to go unchecked on the platform. Durov could face possible indictment on Sunday, according to French media outlets.

Telegram, an encrypted messaging app with close to one billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics. It is considered one of the major social media platforms, alongside Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and WeChat.

Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The French Interior Ministry and police also declined to comment.

Durov, who was born in Russia, founded Telegram with his brother in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition groups on his VKontakte social media platform, which he subsequently sold. “I would rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Durov told U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson in April, discussing his departure from Russia and his search for a new base for his company, which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore, and San Francisco.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become a primary source of unfiltered—and sometimes graphic and misleading—content from both sides about the war and the political context surrounding the conflict. The platform has been described by some analysts as a “virtual battlefield” for the war, heavily used by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his officials, as well as by the Russian government.

Telegram, which allows users to bypass official scrutiny, has also become one of the few channels where Russians can access independent news about the war, especially after the Kremlin intensified restrictions on independent media following its invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian foreign ministry stated that its embassy in Paris is working to clarify Durov’s situation and called on Western non-governmental organizations to demand his release. Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order to grant state security services access to its users’ encrypted messages. This action disrupted many third-party services but had little impact on Telegram’s availability in Russia. The ban led to mass protests in Moscow and criticism from NGOs.

TF1 reported that Durov, who is based in Dubai, had been traveling from Azerbaijan and was arrested at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). Durov, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, has stated that some governments have attempted to pressure him, but he believes the app should remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics.”

Telegram’s growing popularity has drawn scrutiny from several European countries, including France, over concerns about security and data breaches.

Russia’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, along with several other Russian politicians, quickly criticized France on Sunday, accusing it of acting like a dictatorship—the same criticism Moscow faced when it made demands on Durov in 2014 and tried to ban Telegram in 2018. “Some naive persons still don’t understand that if they play a visible role in the international information space, it is not safe for them to visit countries that are moving toward much more totalitarian societies,” Ulyanov wrote on X.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, commented on reports of Durov’s detention, saying, “It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently abandoned his U.S. presidential campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump, stated on X that the need to protect free speech “has never been more urgent.”

Several Russian bloggers have called for protests at French embassies around the world at noon on Sunday.