Who is Pavel Durov, CEO of messaging app Telegram?
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Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov, seen here in a 2016 photo, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested
TF1 and BFM both said the investigation was focused on a lack of moderators on Telegram, and that police considered that this situation allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The French Interior Ministry and police had no comment. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was taking steps to “clarify” the situation and questioned whether Western non-governmental organisations would seek his release.
Here is what is known about Mr Durov and Telegram:
Russian-born Durov, 39, is founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, a free-to-use platform that competes with other social media platforms such as Facebook’s WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat. The platform aims to surpass one billion active monthly users within a year.
Telegram is influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It has become a critical source of information on Russia’s war in Ukraine, used heavily by both Moscow and Kyiv officials. Some analysts call the app “a virtual battlefield” for the war.
Mr Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at US$15.5 billion (S$20.1 billion), left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he sold.
Russian and French media say Mr Durov became a French citizen in 2021. He moved himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017.
“I would rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Mr Durov told US journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his exit from Russia and search for a home for his company, which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
In the same interview, he said that, beyond money or Bitcoin, he had no major property such as real estate, jets or yachts, as he wanted to be free. REUTERS
