French authorities are in custody Pavel Durovthe highest government of online communication platform Telegramon Saturday on fees associated to the distribution of unlawful materials on the service, in line with French media studies.
Durov, 39, a Russian-born entrepreneur, was reportedly arrested at Le Bourget airport close to Paris after touchdown from Azerbaijan. His detention couldn’t be instantly confirmed.
The Russian Embassy in France it said in a statement on Sunday that she had requested French authorities for clarification on the information of the arrest.
Representatives of the French police and the inside ministry declined to remark and referred inquiries to the Paris prosecutor’s workplace. The Paris prosecutor’s workplace, citing an open investigation, additionally declined to remark.
Telegram didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Telegram, with greater than 900 million customers, has lengthy been on the radar of legislation enforcement businesses world wide as a result of terrorist organizations, drug sellers, arms sellers and far-right extremist teams have used it to speak, recruit and arrange.
Nationwide governments, notably within the European Union, have stepped up strain on firms to fight disinformation and on-line extremism. Telegram operates with much less content material moderation than different comparable on-line platforms and doesn’t all the time cooperate with authorities.
Mr. Durov, whose internet value is estimated at Bloomberg of greater than $9 billion, has largely prevented the general public scrutiny confronted by high executives at different main on-line platforms, together with Elon Musk of XMark Zuckerberg of Meta, Shou Chew of TikTok and Sundar Pichai of Google.
Russian citizen Mr. Durov left Russia in 2014 after shedding management of VkontakteFb’s rival in Russia. A 12 months earlier, he based Telegram, advertising it as an uncensored and secret solution to talk. The corporate is now primarily based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mr. Durov has citizenship in France and the UAE, in line with Telegram.
