(Reuters) – Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested on the Bourget airport outdoors Paris on Saturday night, TF1 TV and BFM TV mentioned, citing unnamed sources.
TF1 and BFM each mentioned the investigation was centered on a scarcity of moderators on Telegram, and that police thought of that this case allowed legal exercise to go on undeterred on the messaging app.
Telegram didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark. The French Inside Ministry and police had no remark. Russia’s Overseas Ministry mentioned it was taking steps to “clarify” the state of affairs and questioned whether or not Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) would search his launch..
What is understood about Durov and Telegram:
* Russian-born Durov, 39, is founder and proprietor of messaging app Telegram, a free to make use of platform that competes with different social media platforms reminiscent of Fb (NASDAQ:)’s WhatsApp, or Instagram, TikTok and Wechat. The platform goals to surpass one billion lively month-to-month customers inside a 12 months.
* Telegram is influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the previous Soviet Union. It has change into a essential supply of data on Russia’s battle in Ukraine, used closely by each Moscow and Kyiv officers. Some analysts name the app “a virtual battlefield” for the battle.
* Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to adjust to authorities calls for to close down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he offered.
* Russian and French media say Durov turned a French citizen in 2021. He moved himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017.
* “I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone,” Durov informed U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his exit from Russia and seek for a house for his firm which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
* In the identical interview, Durov mentioned that, past cash or , he had no main property reminiscent of actual property, jets or yachts, as he needed to be free.
