PAVEL DUROV, Telegram messaging app founder and CEO, had been arrested by French police at an airport outside Paris on Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse.
He was detained at the Le Bourget airport north of the French capital on Saturday, August 24. He’d been arrested by the OFMIN of France, which is an office focused on preventing violence against minors.
Before this, he’d been traveling on his private jet from Azerbaijan before he was arrested, targeting him to be part of a preliminary investigation into Telegram. He is now facing possible indictment, reports Al Jazeera.
Often referred to as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia”, Durov and his app are being investigated due to alleged offenses such as fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, as well as the promotion of terrorism.
Both TF1 TV and BFM TV have explained that they hoped to discuss the lack of moderators on the app, which allowed for criminal activity to go undeterred.
He has since been accused of not taking action against the criminal use of his platform.
The Agence France-Presse further reports that Telegram has always been committed to not disclosing any information about its users, which is why so many find privacy, freedom, and safety in the usage of the app.
At present, it is estimated that Telegram has over 900 million monthly active users, with 2.5 million signing up each day, as stated by Backlinko.
A statement released by Telegram yesterday, August 25th, stated: “Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”
They added that the CEO has nothing to hide, often traveling Europe. They stated that the claim that the owner was responsible for the abuse of the platform was absurd and that they were awaiting a resolution to the situation.
People online, outraged
Since the news came out, many have shown support for Durov, claiming that his arrest was unfair given that he was only protecting the free speech of the people on his platform.
“Imagine you own a large apartment complex; France says, “It is a legal requirement to put microphones in every room and let us listen,”
With Exec CEO, Sean Linehan, wrote on X:
“Imagine you own a large apartment complex.
France says, “It is a legal requirement to put microphones in every room and let us listen.”
You say, “No, people should be able to have private conversations.”
They arrest you. The digital equivalent just happened to Pavel Durov.”
A user on X wrote: “Something extremely dangerous is happening in the world: Free will and speech [are] being killed.”
“The fact is, all governments have too much surveillance power over its citizens and now act as if it’s their right,” another user wrote.
“In our own little ways[,] each of us needs to change this. Push back, be ungovernable. Anyone/ [or] anything that needs to watch you, needs to be closely monitored or dismantled.”
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, has also labeled France to be a “totalitarian” society given this incident.
On X, he wrote: “Some naive persons still don’t understand that if they play [a] more or less visible role in international information space it is not safe for them to visit countries which move towards much more totalitarian societies.”
Others, however, have also come to the defense of the French government, citing the fact that people have started using the app for terrorism, supplying narcotics, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, as well as spreading pedophilic content, hence the need for further investigation.
The Telegram Messenger app was first launched for Android in 2013, and then on iOS the following year. It grew popular given its end-to-end encryption in voice and video calls, as well as the option to have private or secret chats.
Many countries, such as Spain and China, have banned the use of the app entirely.
