Telegram says it abides by EU laws as CEO Pavel Durov is detained in France

PARIS - Telegram on Aug 25 questioned the grounds for France’s detention of Mr Pavel Durov, the messaging app’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive officer who was taken into custody at a Paris airport over the weekend.

The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire was stopped on Aug 24 at Le Bourget airport north of Paris after stepping out of a private jet, according to France’s TF1 TV station. The following day, the investigating magistrate extended his detention from 24 hours to up to 96 hours, Agence France-Presse reported.

Before that lapses on Aug 28 evening, the magistrate must decide whether to press charges against Mr Durov, release him without charges or name him as a witness in the investigation and let him go free.

Telegram issued a statement on its platform and on X (formerly known as Twitter), saying the Dubai-based company abides by European laws, including the Digital Services Act, and that Mr Durov has “nothing to hide”.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” according to the statement. “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation.”

The arrest of Mr Durov

was earlier reported by AFP and other French media. The Russian Embassy in Paris responded to the media reports, saying it “immediately asked the French authorities for an explanation of the reasons and demanded that they ensure the protection of his rights and provide consular access” to Mr Durov. 

Embassy officials are in touch with Mr Durov’s lawyer, according to the statement.

Mr Durov lives in Dubai and is a citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Telegram website. He has not previously commented on whether he had renounced his Russian citizenship.

Under the French legal system, police can detain a person for 24 hours, a period that can be renewed once. Mr Durov could be brought before a Paris court on Aug 26 if the authorities want to be able to keep him beyond the initial detention period, the person said.

The Paris prosecutor’s office earlier said it had no comment, in line with “procedures followed during an investigation”.

The Paris police, president of the city’s court, Telegram and the UAE Foreign Ministry did not respond to messages seeking comment outside of regular business hours.

France’s Ofmin, an agency set up to combat violence against minors, issued an arrest warrant for Mr Durov, AFP said.

Ofmin is the coordinating agency in a preliminary probe into alleged offences such as fraud, drug trafficking, cyber bullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, according to AFP.

Following reports of Mr Durov’s arrest, Toncoin – a cryptocurrency linked to Telegram – sank as much as 23 per cent.

Telegram was created by Mr Durov and his brother Nikolai, a programmer and mathematician. It has about 900 million active users and is one of the most popular messaging apps globally.

Its relatively light-touch approach to content moderation has led to allegations that it is

frequently used for criminal activity and extremist material.

The Durov brothers made their fortune from creating the Russia-based social network VKontakte in 2006.

That platform quickly became popular among Russians, making it a target for a billionaire with ties to the Kremlin.

Mr Durov fled the country in 2014 and sold his stake in VKontakte. He has a net worth of more than US$9 billion (S$11.7 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

In an April interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Mr Durov discussed the pressure he had faced from the Russian authorities while running VKontakte, as well as the scrutiny that Telegram has received from law enforcement agencies around the world. 

“I would rather be free. I wouldn’t want to take orders from anyone,” Mr Durov said during the interview. BLOOMBERG