Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested on Saturday evening while leaving his private jet at France’s Bourget airport, according to French television network TF1.
Reports of Durov’s arrest sparked widespread discussion and speculation on social media, including on Telegram itself, though news reports have been largely based on unnamed police sources. Neither Telegram nor a spokesperson for France’s national anti-fraud office ONAF responded to a request for comment.
The Russian embassy in France said it had asked for an explanation but had not heard back from French authorities.
According to TF1, Durov faced a warrant in France based on a preliminary police investigation. The French authorities reportedly claim that Telegram’s lack of content moderation and unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement make Durov an accomplice to the drug trafficking, money laundering, and sharing of child pornography that allegedly occur via the app.
The reported arrest will likely fuel further debate around the extent to which messaging apps should be held responsible (legally and otherwise) for the messages their users share.
Forbes estimates Durov’s net worth at $15.5 billion. Although born in Russia, he left the country in 2014 after resisting government pressure to release data about Ukrainian protest leaders from his previous social network Vkontakte. Durov now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and his plane was reportedly flying in from Azerbaijan.
Durov said last month that Telegram had 950 million active users, with a goal of reaching 1 billion this year. At the same time, the company claims to have around only 30 engineers — a very small team for an app of Telegram’s scale, likely making Durov even more important to the company’s operation.
This post has been updated with a statement from the Russian embassy in France.
