Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France

The billionaire was reported to have been held for allegedly failing to adequately moderate the mainly Russian-language messaging platform

Pavel Durov, the Russian billionaire founder of the Telegram social messaging app, has been arrested in France shortly after flying in on his private jet from Azerbaijan.
No official reason has been given for his arrest on Saturday night in Paris although French media said it was linked to Telegram, the unfiltered, mainly Russian-language social media platform that has become the conduit for news and videos on the war in Ukraine.
TF1 and BFM, the French TV channels, quoted unnamed sources saying that the investigation was focused on “a lack of moderators” on Telegram that allowed “criminal activity”.
It is unclear why Mr Durov had been visiting Azerbaijan. Vladimir Putin also visited Azerbaijan for a meeting with Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani president, this week.
Telegram has about one billion registered users and is ranked as one of the biggest social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat. It is particularly influential in the Russian-speaking world.
Kremlin propagandists and other Russian sources have criticised the arrest of Mr Durov, calling it a Nato plot and a threat to free speech.
“Russian army troops actively use Telegram in battles,” said Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin speech writer. “Therefore, Durov’s arrest is possibly an attempt by the French and Nato special services to establish control over the Russian army’s communications and control system in the north-east military district.”
Elon Musk, the owner of the X social media platform and one of the world’s wealthiest men, also posted messages in support of Mr Durov.
He used the hashtag #FreePavel and retweeted posts criticising the arrest, claiming that Europe was becoming a continent of authoritarian states.
“It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” Mr Musk wrote.
Mr Durov, 39, is one of a generation of Russian tech wizards who helped turn Moscow into a hotspot to rival Silicon Valley.
He set up Telegram in 2013 with his brother but left Russia a year later after refusing to comply with a Kremlin request to close down opposition groups on the VKontakte social media website that had become Russia’s answer to Facebook.
After leaving Russia, Mr Durov sold VKontakte, which has now become a Kremlin-monitored social media network.
Since then, Mr Durov has lived in Dubai. He also has citizenship of France and St Kitts and Nevis, a tax haven used by wealthy Russians to shift money.
Mr Durov, whose fortune is estimated at £11.8 billion, is a vocal proponent of free speech and tech innovation and had praised Mr Musk’s controversial takeover of Twitter, rebranded as X.