Pavel Durov, the Russian-born inventor of Telegram, was detained in France for a second day of questioning on Monday for alleged offenses relating to the popular but controversial messaging service. Durov said he had “nothing to hide”.
His arrest late Saturday after landing at Le Bourget airport near Paris is the latest dramatic twist in the career of one of the world’s most powerful software superstars.
The investigating magistrate in charge of the case extended Durov’s arrest beyond Sunday night, according to a source close to the probe. The initial term of custody for questioning might be up to 96 hours.
When this phase of detention finishes, the judge can decide whether to release Durov, whose worth Forbes magazine estimates at $15.5 billion, or to press charges and keep him in custody.
Russia has accused France of “refusing to cooperate,” while fellow tech magnate Elon Musk has rushed to Durov’s defense and urged for his release. Durov has a French passport in addition to other nationalities.
Durov, who has recently lived in Dubai, came in Paris from Baku, Azerbaijan, and planned to have supper in the French capital, according to a source familiar with the matter.
He was accompanied by a bodyguard and a personal assistant who always travel with him, according to the source, who requested anonymity.
Another source added that France’s OFMIN, which is in charge of preventing violence against minors, has issued an arrest warrant for Durov as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged crimes such as fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, and terrorism promotion.
Durov is accused of neglecting to take measures to stop the unlawful exploitation of his platform.
Telegram said in response that “Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.”
“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards,” it added. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
‘Assault on basic human rights’
Russian President Vladimir Putin had also been in Baku on a state visit to Azerbaijan on August 18 and 19. But in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that the pair had met.
Durov founded Telegram in 2013 after his first project, the Russian social network VKontakte (VK), ran into ownership difficulties he blamed on the Kremlin. He left Russia in 2014.
Telegram has become hugely popular partly due to the ease of viewing and posting videos on its messaging “channels”.
But critics accuse it of hosting often illegal content ranging from extreme sexual imagery to disinformation and also services for buying drugs.
Peskov said Moscow had received no information from France on why it was holding him, saying “we do not know concretely what Durov is accused of”.
Musk, who leads the Tesla car group and the X social media platform, formerly Twitter, posted the hashtag #FreePavel on X and commented in French, “Liberte Liberte! Liberte?” (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).
US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who got asylum in Russia, blasted “an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association”, saying he was saddened Paris had “descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications.”
‘Express their freedoms’
One of the key questions is why Durov flew into France when he would have likely been aware he was wanted in the country. “Perhaps he had a feeling of impunity,” said a source close to the case, asking not to be named.
Telegram has positioned itself as a “neutral” alternative to US-owned platforms, which have been criticised for their commercial exploitation of users’ personal data.
It also plays a key role in the war between Ukraine and Russia after Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.
The app is used by Kyiv including President Volodymyr Zelensky in regular video statements to push Ukraine’s message across but also by the so-called Russian “Z-bloggers” who strongly back the war and report from the front.
In a rare interview given to right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson in April, Durov predicted Telegram would have one billion users next year and insisted that despite his wealth his priority was to be “free”.
“My mission in life was to allow other people to also become free… and using the platforms that we created my hope was that they could express their freedoms. This is the mission of Telegram.”