NICE, France (AP) — The founder and CEO of the messaging service Telegram was detained at a Paris airport on an arrest warrant alleging his platform has been used for cash laundering, drug trafficking and different offenses, French media reported Sunday.
Pavel Durov, a twin citizen of France and Russia, was taken into custody at Paris-Le Bourget Airport on Saturday night after touchdown in France from Azerbaijan, based on broadcasters LCI and TF1.
Investigators from the Nationwide Anti-Fraud Workplace, connected to the French customs division, notified Durov, 39, that he was being positioned in police custody, the broadcasters mentioned.
Durov’s representatives couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
French prosecutors declined to touch upon Durov’s arrest when contacted by The Related Press on Sunday, in step with laws throughout an ongoing investigation.
French media reported that the warrant for Durov was issued by France on the request of the particular unit on the nation’s inside ministry accountable for investigating crimes in opposition to minors.
These embrace on-line sexual exploitation, similar to possession and distribution of kid sexual abuse content material and grooming for sexual functions.
Telegram was based by Durov and his brother within the wake of the Russian authorities’s crackdown after mass pro-democracy protests that rocked Moscow on the finish of 2011 and 2012.
Manuel Blondeau – Corbis through Getty Photographs
The demonstrations prompted Russian authorities to clamp down on the digital area, adopting laws that pressured web suppliers to dam web sites and cellphone operators to retailer name data and messages that may very well be shared with safety providers.
Within the more and more repressive atmosphere, Telegram and its pro-privacy rhetoric supplied a handy approach for Russians to speak and share information. In 2018, Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor moved to dam Telegram over its refusal at hand over encryption keys, however in the end failed to totally limit entry to the app.
Telegram continued to be extensively used — together with by authorities establishments — and the ban was dropped two years later. In March 2024, Roskomnadzor mentioned that Telegram was working with the Russian authorities to a sure extent and had eliminated greater than 256,000 posts with prohibited content material at Roskomnadzor’s request.
Telegram additionally continues to be a well-liked supply of stories in Ukraine, the place each media retailers and officers use it to share data on the struggle, and ship missile and air raid alerts.
Telegram didn’t instantly reply to a message for touch upon Sunday.
A French judicial official urged that Durov might seem earlier than a choose later Sunday to find out whether or not he’ll stay in custody. The official wasn’t licensed to be named publicly throughout an ongoing investigation.
“If the person concerned is to be brought before a judge today, it is only in the context of the possible extension of his police custody measure — a decision that must be taken and notified by an investigating judge,” the official mentioned.
Western governments have usually criticized Telegram for lack of content material moderating on the messaging service, which consultants say opens up the messaging platform for potential use in cash laundering, drug trafficking and permitting the sharing of content material linked to sexual exploitation of minors.
In comparison with different messaging platforms, Telegram is “less secure (and) more lax in terms of policy and detection of illegal content,” mentioned David Thiel, a Stanford College researcher, who has investigated the usage of on-line platforms for little one exploitation, at its Web Observatory.
As well as, Telegram “appears basically unresponsive to law enforcement,” Thiel mentioned, including that messaging service WhatsApp “submitted over 1.3 million CyberTipline reports in 2023 (and) Telegram submits none.”
In 2022, Germany issued fines of 5.125 million euros ($5 million) in opposition to the operators of Telegram for failing to adjust to German regulation. The Federal Workplace of Justice mentioned that Telegram FZ-LLC hasn’t established a lawful approach for reporting unlawful content material or named an entity in Germany to obtain official communication.
Each are required below German legal guidelines that regulate massive on-line platforms.
Final yr, Brazil briefly suspended Telegram over its failure to give up knowledge on neo-Nazi exercise associated to a police inquiry into faculty shootings in November.
Russian authorities officers expressed outrage at Durov’s arrest, with some highlighting what they mentioned was the West’s double normal on freedom of speech.
“In 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, condemned the Russian court’s decision to block Telegram,” Russian International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mentioned.
“Do you think this time they’ll appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release?” Zakharova mentioned in a put up on her private Telegram account.
Officers on the Russian Embassy in Paris had requested entry to Durov, Zakharova instructed Russian state information outlet RIA Novosti, however she added that French authorities view Durov’s French citizenship as his main one.
In an announcement to the AP earlier this month, Telegram mentioned that it actively combats misuse of its platform.
“Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring and user reports in order to remove content that breaches Telegram’s terms of service. Each day, millions of pieces of harmful content are removed,” the corporate mentioned.
Related Press writers Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, Matt OBrien in Windfall, Rhode Island, and Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California contributed to this report.
