French authorities arrest Telegram CEO Pavel Durov at Paris airport

NICE, France (AP) — The founder and CEO of messaging service Telegram has been detained at a Paris airport on an arrest warrant after his platform was allegedly used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other crimes, French media reported Sunday.

Pavel Durov, who has dual French and Russian citizenship, was arrested at Paris-Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after landing in France from Azerbaijan, broadcasters LCI and TF1 reported.

Detectives from the French Anti-Fraud Office, which is attached to French customs, informed 39-year-old Durov that he was being held by police, the broadcasters reported.

Durov’s representatives were not immediately available for comment.

French prosecutors declined to comment on Durov’s arrest when contacted by the Associated Press news agency on Sunday, under the rules of an ongoing investigation.

French media reported that the arrest warrant for Durov was issued by France at the request of the country’s Interior Ministry’s special unit charged with investigating crimes against minors. These include online sexual exploitation, such as possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material and solicitation for sexual purposes.

Telegram was founded by Durov and his brother after the Russian government’s massive crackdown on pro-democracy protests that rocked Moscow in late 2011 and 2012.

The protests prompted Russian authorities to clamp down on the digital world, introducing rules that forced internet providers to block websites and mobile operators to store call logs and messages that could be shared with security services.

In an increasingly repressive environment, Telegram and its pro-privacy rhetoric provided a convenient way for Russians to communicate and share news. In 2018, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor decided to block Telegram over its refusal to hand over encryption keys, but ultimately failed to completely restrict access to the app.

Telegram continued to be widely used, including by government agencies, and the ban was lifted two years later. In March 2024, Roskomnadzor said that Telegram cooperated to some extent with the Russian government and had removed more than 256,000 messages with prohibited content at Roskomnadzor’s request.

Photo: Oyundelger luwsaa / Wikimedia Commons

Telegram is still a popular news source in Ukraine, too. Both media and officials use it to share information about the war and to issue warnings about missiles and airstrikes.

In a statement on its platform, Telegram said it complies with EU law, including the Digital Services Act, and that its moderation “falls within industry standards and is continuously improving.”

Durov, the company added, “has nothing to hide and travels regularly across Europe.”

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform,” Telegram’s message read. “Almost a billion users worldwide use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of essential information. We are waiting for a quick resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”

A French judicial official suggested that Durov could appear before a judge later on Sunday to determine whether he will remain in custody. The official was not authorized to be publicly named during an ongoing investigation.

“If the person concerned has to appear before the court today, it will only be in the context of the possible extension of his pre-trial detention – a decision that must be taken and announced by an investigating judge,” the official said.

Western governments have often criticized Telegram for the lack of content moderation on the messaging service, which experts say could allow the messaging platform to be used for money laundering, drug trafficking, and sharing content related to the sexual exploitation of minors.

Compared to other messaging platforms, Telegram is “less secure (and) more lax in its policies and detection of illegal content,” said David Thiel, a Stanford University researcher who has studied the use of online platforms for child exploitation at the Internet Observatory.

Additionally, Telegram “appears to be essentially unresponsive to law enforcement,” Thiel said, adding that messaging service WhatsApp “filed over 1.3 million CyberTipline reports in 2023 (and) Telegram files none.”

In 2022, Germany imposed fines of 5.125 million euros ($5 million) on Telegram operators for failing to comply with German law. The Federal Office of Justice said Telegram FZ-LLC had not established a legal way to report illegal content or designated an entity in Germany to receive official communications.

Both are required under German law regulating major online platforms.

Last year, Brazil temporarily suspended Telegram after it refused to release data on neo-Nazi activity in connection with a police investigation into school shootings in November.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media site X who has previously called himself a “freedom of speech absolutist,” posted “#freePavel” in support of Durov after the arrest.

Russian officials expressed outrage at Durov’s arrest, with some highlighting what they called the West’s double standards when it comes to freedom of expression.

“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,” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“Do you think this time they will appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release?” Zakharova wrote in a message on her personal Telegram account.

Officials from the Russian embassy in Paris had requested access to Durov, Zakharova told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, adding, however, that French authorities consider Durov’s French nationality to be his primary nationality.

Telegram said in a statement to AP earlier this month that it actively combats abuse of its platform.

“Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring and user reports to remove content that violates Telegram’s Terms of Service. Millions of pieces of harmful content are removed every day,” the company said.

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