Durov has ‘nothing to hide’, says Telegram after arrest in France

His arrest after arriving late on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris is the latest extraordinary twist in the career of one of the world’s most influential tech icons. The detention of Durov, 39, was extended beyond Sunday night by the investigating judge handling the case, a source close to the investigation said. This initial period of detention for questioning could last up to 96 hours. When this phase of detention ends, the judge could decide to release Durov, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $15.5 billion, or press charges and remand him in custody. Russia has accused France of “refusing to cooperate,” while fellow tech magnate Elon Musk defended Durov and called for his release. Durov holds a French passport, among other nationalities. Durov had arrived in Paris from Baku, Azerbaijan, and was planning to have dinner in the French capital, a source close to the matter said. He was accompanied by a bodyguard and a personal assistant who always accompanied him, the source added, requesting anonymity. France’s OFMIN, an office charged with preventing violence against minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged crimes including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and promoting terrorism, another source said. Durov is accused of failing to take measures to curb the criminal use of his platform. Telegram said in response that “Durov has nothing to hide and regularly travels around Europe.” “Telegram complies with EU law, including the Digital Services Act — moderation falls within industry standards,” it added. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform.” ‘Attack on fundamental human rights’ Durov founded Telegram in 2013 after his first project, the Russian social network VKontakte (VK), ran into ownership problems that he blamed on the Kremlin. He left Russia in 2014. Telegram has become hugely popular, partly because of the ease with which you can watch and post videos on its messaging channels. But critics accuse it of often hosting illegal content ranging from extreme sexual imagery, disinformation and even services for buying drugs. The Russian embassy in Paris said it had demanded access to Durov but had received no response from France, saying “the French side is refusing to cooperate.” Musk, who runs the Tesla car group and the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, posted the hashtag #FreePavel on X and responded in French: “Liberte Liberte! Liberte?” (Freedom, Freedom! Freedom?). US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has sought asylum in Russia, criticized “an attack on the fundamental human rights of expression and association” and said he regretted that Paris had “descended to the level of taking hostages as a means of gaining access to private communications.” ‘Express their freedoms’ One of the key questions is why Durov flew to France when he likely knew he was wanted in the country. “Maybe he had a sense of impunity,” said a source close to the matter, who asked not to be named. Telegram, an encrypted messaging app based in Dubai, has positioned itself as a “neutral” alternative to US platforms, which have been criticized for their commercial exploitation of users’ personal data. It has also played a key role in the war between Ukraine and Russia following Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor. The app is used by Kiev, including President Volodymyr Zelensky in regular video statements to get Ukraine’s message across, but also by so-called Russian “Z bloggers” who strongly support the war and report from the front. In a rare interview with right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson in April, Durov predicted that Telegram would have a billion users by next year and insisted that despite his wealth, his priority was to be “free.” “My mission in life was to set other people free too… and through the platforms we created, I hoped they could express their freedoms. This is the mission of Telegram.”