Telegram CEO arrested over probe into child porn, drug trafficking on app

PARIS - Mr Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform, French prosecutors said on Aug 26.

French President Emmanuel Macron, making the first official confirmation of Mr Durov’s arrest since

he was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris

on the evening of Aug 24, said there was no political motive in the arrest, despite many false comments online. He added that France remains deeply committed to lawful free speech.

“The arrest of the Telegram president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” Mr Macron wrote on X. “This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide.”

In a subsequent statement, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Mr Durov was arrested as part of a probe into an unnamed person launched by the office’s cybercrime unit on July 8.

The investigation is over suspected complicity in various crimes including running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud, as well as the refusal to communicate information to the authorities, money laundering and providing cryptographic services to criminals, the statement said. Mr Durov can be held until Aug 28, it added.

Telegram is a popular messaging and social media app akin to WhatsApp. The application, which allows encrypted chats, has close to 1 billion users, and is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Mr Durov’s arrest prompted criticism from X owner Elon Musk, who said that free speech in Europe was under attack, and calls from Moscow for the French authorities to accord Mr Durov his rights.

Tensions between France and Russia have been mounting for months, with the French authorities accusing Russia of trying to destabilise it ahead of the Paris Olympics in response to its more hawkish stance on the Ukraine war – claims that Russia denies.

Mr Durov, a 39-year-old billionaire cast as “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg”, holds dual French and United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizenship. Estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of US$15.5 billion (S$20.2 billion), he said in April that some governments had sought to pressure him, but that the app should remain a neutral platform and not a “player in geopolitics”.

Telegram gave no details of the arrest but said the Dubai-based company abided by European Union laws and its moderation was “within industry standards and constantly improving”.

“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” it said in a statement. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform.”

The Kremlin said on Aug 27 that the serious accusations France has levelled against Mr Durov would be viewed as an attempt to restrict freedom of communication unless they were backed up with serious evidence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Russia was ready to provide Mr Durov with all necessary assistance, given that he was born in Russia. But he said Mr Durov’s French citizenship complicated the situation.

“The charges are very serious indeed,” said Mr Peskov. “They require a no less serious basis of evidence. Otherwise, they will be a direct attempt to limit freedom of communication.”

Russia has previously tried, and failed, to block Telegram, and has fined the company several times for failing to delete what it deemed illegal content.

Mr Peskov said Mr Durov’s case could be seen as intimidation of the head of a large company and cast doubt on an assertion by Mr Macron that there was no political motive in Mr Durov’s detention.

French citizen

Telegram was founded by Mr Durov, a self-confessed libertarian who left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he has sold.

He obtained his French passport in 2021 through a rare, fast-track procedure for high-profile foreigners exempting them from the usual legal requirements, including having lived in the country for at least five years.

According to French law, any foreigner can be granted citizenship under the special rules provided he speaks French and “contributes through his outstanding work to France’s influence and the prosperity of its international economic relations”.

Mr Durov never lived in France, and it was unclear what special link he had to the country. On June 10, he posted in his Telegram channel: “As a French citizen, I agree that France is the best holiday destination.”

His naturalisation procedure is rare, with only 10 to 20 such cases processed each year and each one requiring high-level political support, according to local media.

Mr Evan Spiegel, the co-founder of Snap, the maker of the Snapchat app, received French citizenship in 2018 under the same programme, local media reported at the time. Snap did not respond to request for comment.

Aside from being a citizen of France and the UAE, Mr Durov has been reported by Russian state media to also have citizenship of Russia, and of St Kitts and Nevis. Reuters was unable to verify those reports. REUTERS