After being detained by French police at an airport close to Paris on suspicion of charges connected to his well-known messaging program, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is scheduled to appear in court today, according to sources who spoke to AFP, reports RTE.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the sources said that the 39-year-old Franco-Russian billionaire was held at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital yesterday evening.
Another person with knowledge of the situation stated that Mr. Durov had travelled from Baku, in Azerbaijan.
According to one of the sources, Durov was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by France’s OFMIN, an institution entrusted with preventing violence against children, as part of a preliminary probe into allegations of fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime, and terrorist promotion, reports RTE.
It is alleged that Mr. Durov has not taken any steps to stop illegal usage of his platform.
One of the detectives stated, “Enough of Telegram’s impunity,” and expressed amazement that Mr. Durov had travelled to Paris knowing he was sought.
‘Privacy’ platform
The Dubai-based encrypted messaging service has positioned itself as a substitute for US-owned platforms, which have come under fire for abusing users’ personal information for profit, reports RTE.
Telegram pledges never to share any user data with other parties.
In an uncommon interview, Mr. Durov told Tucker Carlson, presenter of the right-wing talk program, in April that he was under pressure from the Russian government to release an encrypted messaging app when he was employed at VK, the social network he founded before selling it and departing the country in 2014.
After that, he claimed, he attempted to live in Berlin, London, Singapore, and San Francisco before deciding on Dubai, which he commended for its “neutrality” and business-friendly atmosphere, reports RTE.
People “appreciate their freedom. Mr. Durov informed Mr. Carlson, “They also love the privacy and the freedom—there are a lot of reasons why somebody would switch to Telegram.”
At the time, he claimed that there were over 900 million active users on the network, reports RTE.
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