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Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov delivers a keynote speech during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 23, 2016. (Reuters)
Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Bourget airport near Paris for alleged criminal activity on his messaging app. The arrest is part of a French investigation
Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday. The investigation reportedly focused on the lack of moderators on Telegram, which allegedly allowed criminal activity to go undeterred.
What is Pavel Durov?
Russian-born Durov, 39, is founder and owner of messaging app Telegram. This free-to-use platform competes with other social media platforms such as Facebook’s WhatsApp, or Instagram, TikTok and Wechat. The platform aims to surpass one billion active monthly users within a year.
Telegram is influential in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet nations. It has become a critical source of information on Russia’s war in Ukraine, used heavily by both Moscow and Kyiv officials.
Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold. Russian and French media say Durov became a French citizen in 2021. He moved himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017.
Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member,… https://t.co/F83E9GbNHC— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2024
‘Would rather be free’
In an April interview with popular news personality Tucker Carlson, Durov said, “I would rather be free than take orders from anyone.” In the same interview, Durov said that, beyond money or Bitcoin, he had no major property such as real estate, jets or yachts, as he wanted to be free. He told Carlson about his exit from Russia and search for a home for his company which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
After news of Durov’s arrest broke, Carlson said: “Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a Western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away. Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intelligence agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”
(With agency inputs)
