- French shops reported Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested Saturday at an airport close to Paris.
- Durov was arrested because of a “preliminary police investigation,” Reuters reported.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested Saturday as he departed his personal jet at Le Bourget airport outdoors Paris, a number of shops reported.
Reuters reported, citing French media sources, that the elusive billionaire entrepreneur was arrested as a part of a preliminary investigation into felony exercise on the moment messaging app. Per CBS News, the investigation is concentrated on posts on the platform that will embody offenses reminiscent of fraud, drug trafficking, and arranged crime, with Telegram accused of failing to average such content material adequately.
CBS News reported he’s anticipated to seem in court docket on Sunday.
Durov’s arrest comes amid rising worldwide strain on social media platforms to average content material on their websites and apps. The European Union, of which France is a key member, not too long ago applied the Digital Services Act, which requires massive tech firms to strictly average unlawful content material on their platforms or face steep fines. Telegram has confronted intense scrutiny from the EU this 12 months over its moderation practices for the reason that platform has grown to 41 million EU customers — simply shy of the 45 million measurement that might require the platform to comply with DSA guidelines.
Telegram is a very influential social media platform in Ukraine and Russia and has turn out to be a main supply of details about the warfare between the 2 nations. The web site has come beneath repeated hearth for internet hosting graphic and deceptive content material concerning the Russia-Ukraine warfare and the warfare between Israel and Hamas. However, Telegram hardly ever shuts down channels with out prompting from legislation enforcement or regulatory businesses.
Durov, born in Russia, left the nation in 2014 after he refused to adjust to Kremlin orders to close down the accounts of opposition teams on a separate social media platform he based, VKontakte, per Reuters. That 12 months, Durov offered his stake in VKontakte.
“I’d somewhat be free than to take orders from anybody,” Durov advised Tucker Carlson in April about his resolution to go away Russia.
Representatives for Telegram didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Business Insider.
