Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested at the Paris-Le Bourget airport in France on Saturday, after arriving by a private plane from Baku, Azerbaijan. Photo: X/@jacksonhinklle
Messaging app Telegram has said its CEO Pavel Durov, who was detained in France, has “nothing to hide”.
The 39-year-old Durov was arrested at the Paris-Le Bourget airport in France on Saturday, after arriving by a private plane from Baku, Azerbaijan.
He is accused of having failed to moderate criminal activity on the platform/
The app is also accused of failure to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud.
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Telegram said its moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving”.
“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving. Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.” Telegram said.
Telegram said it is awaiting a “prompt resolution of this situation.”
Russia has accused France of “refusing to cooperate” with fellow tech mogul Elon Musk sweeping to his defence.
Durov holds a French passport in addition to other nationalities.
The Russian-born Durov, co-founded what became one of Russia’s most popular social media networks, VKontakte (VK), in his native St Petersburg, in 2007.
Durov has been compared with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
In 2013, he grabbed global headlines by publicly offering a job to whistleblower and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
In a rare interview given to right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson in April, Durov said he got the idea to launch an encrypted messaging app after coming under pressure from the Russian government while working at VK.
He also revealed attempts to break the application’s security and surveil its users.
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, disinformation and also services for buying drugs, according to AFP.
Russia’s embassy to Paris said it had demanded access to Durov but had no response from France, saying “the French side is refusing to cooperate”.
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