According to TF1 TV and BFM TV, who cited unidentified sources, billionaire founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram Pavel Durov was detained on Saturday night at the Bourget airport south of Paris.
Pavel Durov jail
According to TF1’s website, Durov was traveling in his private plane. It also stated that he was the subject of a French arrest warrant as part of an initial police probe. According to TF1 and BFM, the police believed that the absence of moderators on Telegram allowed illegal conduct to continue unchecked. This was the main focus of the inquiry. Remarks from Telegram were not immediately available after Reuters reached out to them. Both the French police and Interior Ministry remained silent. According to TF1, Durov was caught at 20:00 (18:00 GMT) while traveling from Azerbaijan. Telegram, headquartered in Dubai. It was founded by Russian-born Durov. He fled Russia in 2014 after refusing to cooperate with orders to shut down opposition networks on his VK social media network, which he sold. Durov, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes to be $15.5 billion, said certain governments have tried to persuade him, but the app, which now has 900 million active users, should remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics.”
