Telegram CEO Durov arrested at French airport over apps 'lax moderation rules'; Top Russian MP calls for his release

Dan Woodland
Daily Mail
Sat, 24 Aug 2024 22:05 UTC

Telegram messaging app founder and CEO Pavel Durov has reportedly been arrested at a French airport after stepping off private plane

Telegram messaging app founder and CEO Pavel Durov has reportedly been arrested at a French airport after stepping off private plane.

Police swooped on the billionaire shortly after landing at the Bourget airport, outside Paris, following a flight from Azerbaijan, French outlet TF1 info reported, citing an unnamed source.

Durov was travelling aboard his private jet and had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France, the news site added.

The 39-year-old tech tycoon was reportedly arrested at around 8pm local time while accompanied by his bodyguard.

Despite being born in Russia, Durov has not lived there since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Crimea and the Donbas area of Ukraine in 2014.

Durov now lives in Dubai where Telegram is based and holds dual citizenship of both France and the United Arab Emirates.

He was quoted by TechCrunch in 2014 as saying: 'I don't have any business in Russia and have no plans to return there. I have no Russian citizenship anymore.'

Comment: Whilst there may have been certain topics which would have been under scrutiny in Russia, such as the war, it's highly unlikely he would have been unfairly targeted or treated, as appears to be happening now, where he seems to be the latest victim in the West's increasingly draconian crackdown. And so he would probably have been much better off staying in Russia.

Durov Founded the app in 2013 along with his brother Nikolai. It now has 950 million active users who can send messages, photos and videos, take part in chats for groups of up to 200,000 people and broadcast to unlimited audiences.

Intended as a rival to WhatsApp, Telegram users can have 'secret chats', in which messages are stored on devices rather than the cloud, and messages can also be set to self-destruct after a certain time period.

Mr Durov who is estimated to be worth around £12 billion, said in an interview earlier this year Telegram would remain a 'neutral platform' and not a 'player in geopolitics.'

But the UK government has insisted social media companies such as Telegram must do more to stop extremists using their services for criminal means.

The campaigning organisation Counter Extremism Project said Telegram has taken some action to reduce the use of its platform by terrorists but commented on its website 'it is clear that more can and should be done.'

Comment: RT reports on the call to release Durov:

Russia must demand the immediate release of Telegram founder Pavel Durov who has been reportedly detained in France, Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vladislav Davankov has said.

According to French media, the 39-year-old dual Russian-French national was detained on Saturday at the Paris-Le Bourget airport. The French authorities reportedly believe that the lax moderation rules and encryption technology had allowed the widespread use of the Telegram messager by criminals.

Writing on Telegram in the early hours of Sunday, Davankov defended Durov's record. "Hardly anyone else has done more for the development of digital services in Russia and the world," he argued.

"We need to get him out of there. I have urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to appeal to the French authorities to release Pavel Durov from custody," the politician wrote on Telegram. "His arrest could be politically motivated and used to gain access to personal information of Telegram users. We cannot allow this."

In case Paris refuses to release Durov, "everything must be done to transport him to the UAE or Russia - if he agrees, of course," the politician said.

He dismissed the allegations against Durov, saying that illicit activity can be found on all messaging platforms. "But nobody gets to arrest or jail their owners. And it shouldn't happen this time."

Durov was born in St. Petersburg. In 2006, he founded the social media platform VK, often described as 'Russia's Facebook.'

In just the last month the establishment's attack on free speech is picking up at a serious pace, with various 'dissidents' being arrested, harassed, and censored, including: Scott Ritter, The Cradle, Judge Napolitano, Richard Medhurst, TadghHickey, and X was forced to shut down its offices in Brazil:

• Musk to shut X in Brazil 'effective immediately' over judge's 'secret orders that would break international law'
• Meta permanently bans media outlet The Cradle in latest attack on free speech
• FBI raids home of ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter - UPDATE: Scott addresses the press outside his home

And that's not including the world leaders and politicians who have found themselves subject to assassination attempts. Then there are the numerous coups and colour revolution attempts.

Taken together, these are foreboding developments indeed:

• Georgia investigates assassination and coup plots - a comprehensive list can be found at these links.
• Putin assassination attempts linked to US funds - Russia

The following is a statement from a comedian who was also recently singled out by the establishment's tech giants: