Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested At French Airport

The boss of Telegram has been arrested at an airport in France, the BBC reports.

39-year-old Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the popular messaging app, was detained after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport north of Paris.

The BBC reports Durov’s arrest came under a warrant for offences relating to having a lack of moderators on the app, with Durov accused of failing to take necessary steps to curb criminal uses on the platform.

Durov, who was born in Russia, lives in Dubai and has dual French and UAE citizenship, founded Telegram in 2013. The app was banned in Russia in 2018, after he refused to hand over user data. This ban was reversed in 2021. Telegram has a reported 950million monthly users and is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states.

X owner Elon Musk reacted to Durov’s, hashtagging one post #freepavel, and in another he wrote: “POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.”