PARIS (Reuters) -Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app was arrested on the Bourget airport exterior Paris on Saturday night, TF1 TV and BFM TV stated, citing unnamed sources.
Durov was travelling aboard his non-public jet, TF1 stated on its web site, including he had been focused by an arrest warrant in France as a part of a preliminary police investigation.
TF1 and BFM each stated the investigation was centered on an absence of moderators on Telegram, and that police thought-about that this example 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.
TF1 stated Durov had been travelling from Azerbaidjan and was arrested at round 20:00 (18:00 GMT).
Telegram, primarily based in Dubai, was based by Russian-born Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after he refused to adjust to calls for to close down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he bought.
Durov, who’s estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5 billion, stated some governments had sought to stress him however the app, which has now 900 million lively customers, ought to stay a “neutral platform” and never a “player in geopolitics”.
