Arrest of Telegram founder part of cybercrime probe, prosecutors say | France

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire co-founder of messaging app Telegram, has been arrested in France in connection with an investigation into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement, prosecutors announced Monday.

Durov, a French national, was arrested Saturday night at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after flying his private jet from Azerbaijan. His surprise arrest has sparked a global debate on freedom of expression and outrage in Moscow.

According to Parisian prosecutor Laure Beccuau, the investigation involved crimes related to illegal transactions, child sexual abuse, fraud and refusal to provide information to authorities.

Earlier in the day, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed for the first time that Durov had been arrested as part of a judicial investigation into Telegram.

“In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, in order to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights,” Macron wrote on X, adding that the arrest was “in no way a political decision.” “It is up to the judiciary, in complete independence, to uphold the law,” he said.

A senior official at Ofmin, a French agency created last year to prevent violence against children, said Durov’s arrest was linked to Telegram’s failure to properly combat crime on the app, including the distribution of child sexual abuse material.

“At the heart of this case is the lack of moderation and cooperation from the platform (which has almost 1 billion users), particularly in the fight against crimes against children,” Jean-Michel Bernigaud, Secretary General of Ofmin, wrote on LinkedIn.

Beccuau said Durov was arrested as part of an investigation “into X” – which stands for an unknown person or persons – that was opened on July 8 after a preliminary investigation by officials of the National Jurisdiction for the Suppression of Organized Crime (Junalco).

Cybercrime specialists and fraud detectives are investigating 12 alleged crimes related to organized crime, including complicity in the possession and distribution of images of children of a “pedoporographic nature”, drug offenses and fraud. It is not clear which of the alleged crimes the police are questioning Durov about, if any.

On Sunday, the investigating judge extended Durov’s detention from 24 to 96 hours.

In a statement on Sunday evening, Telegram said Durov had “nothing to hide”. It said: “Telegram complies with EU law, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is within industry standards and is constantly being improved. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform.”

Durov, a self-described libertarian often portrayed as “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg,” left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with Kremlin demands to shut down opposition groups on the social network VK, which he founded at age 22.

He was forced to sell VK after a dispute with its Kremlin-linked owners and turned his attention to Telegram, the app he co-founded with his brother Nikolai in 2013. Durov, who lives in Dubai, obtained his French passport in 2021 through a special procedure for known foreigners, exempting them from the usual legal requirements, including having to live in the country for at least five years.

Telegram has long been used by pro-democracy activists in countries including Belarus, Hong Kong and Iran. In Russia, the Kremlin was forced to lift a ban on the widely used app after years of unsuccessful attempts to clamp down on it.

But it has also become a haven for extremists and conspiracy theorists. The app was also widely used by far-right agitators who planned anti-immigration protests in England and Northern Ireland after the stabbing of three children at a dance class in Southport last month.

Telegram denies allegations that its platform facilitates illegal activities such as terrorism, fraud and child exploitation.

Although Durov has previously been in conflict with the Kremlin, his arrest has sparked anger in Moscow and has been portrayed by Russian officials as an example of Western hypocrisy on freedom of expression.

“The arrest of Pavel Durov confirmed that there is no European or even global (pro-Western) freedom of expression,” said Sergei Mironov, a veteran Russian ultra-nationalist politician and ally of Vladimir Putin.

Maria Butina, a Russian lawmaker who spent 15 months in a US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov was “a political prisoner – a victim of a witch hunt by the West.”

According to Russian state media, the Russian embassy in France has requested consular access to Durov, but his representatives have not responded.

Durov’s arrest has reignited debates over the responsibility of social media tech companies for the content shared on their platforms and whether they should prioritize security and cooperation with authorities over upholding free speech. Elon Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” condemned Durov’s arrest, saying freedom of expression in Europe was under attack.