Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Pavel Durovfounder and CEO of the application chat Telegramwas arrested at Bourget airport, France, Saturday afternoon (24/8) local time.

Launch Reutersthis was published in French media reports TF1 television and BFM TVciting unnamed sources.

Telegram, which is very influential in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, runs as one of the main social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.

The platform aims to reach one billion users next year.

Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born billionaire Durov. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VK, which he sold.

according to TF1Durov, who was traveling on his private jet, has been the subject of an arrest warrant in France as part of a preliminary police investigation.

TF1 and BFM both said that the investigation focuses on the lack of moderators (aka censorship) on Telegram, and that the police believe that this situation allows criminal activity to continue unhindered on the messaging application.

Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment Reuters.

At the same time, the Ministry of the Interior and the French police did not respond to this news.

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram became the main source of unsophisticated, and sometimes false and misleading, content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.

The app has become the preferred method of communication for the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his officials. The Kremlin and the Russian government also use it to spread their news.

The app has also become one of the few places where Russian citizens can access news about the war.

TF1 Durov revealed that Durov traveled from Azerbaijan and was arrested around 20:00 (18:00 GMT).

Durov, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes at US$15.5 billion, said that some governments had tried to put pressure on him, but that the app, which now has 900 million active users, should , remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics.”

The Russian Embassy in France told the Russian state news agency TASS that Durov’s team did not contact them after the reported arrest, but took “immediate” steps to clarify the situation.

Russia’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, and several other Russian politicians were quick to accuse France of being a dictator.

“Some naive people still do not understand that if they have a more prominent place in the international information field, it is not safe for them to visit countries that are moving towards a much more totalitarian society.” shouted Ulyanov in X.

Several Russian bloggers called for protests at French embassies around the world at noon on Sunday.

[Gambas:Video CNN]

(Reuters/arh)