Telegram chief Pavel Durov arrested at French airport

Telegram chief government Pavel Durov is anticipated to look in court docket Sunday after being arrested by French police at an airport close to Paris for alleged offenses associated to his fashionable messaging app, sources advised AFP.

The Franco-Russian billionaire, 39, was detained at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital on Saturday night, one of many sources stated, talking on situation of anonymity.

Durov had arrived from Baku, in Azerbaijan, one other supply near the case stated.

France’s OFMIN, an workplace tasked with stopping violence towards minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offenses together with fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and promotion of terrorism, one of many sources stated.

Durov is accused of failing to take motion to curb the legal use of his platform.

“Sufficient of Telegram’s impunity,” stated one of many investigators, including they have been shocked Durov got here to Paris realizing he was a needed man.

Platform of ‘privateness’

The encrypted messaging app, primarily based in Dubai, has positioned itself as an alternative choice to US-owned platforms, which have been criticized for his or her industrial exploitation of customers’ private information.

Telegram has dedicated to by no means disclosing any details about its customers.

In a uncommon interview given to right-wing speak present host Tucker Carlson in April, Durov stated he acquired the concept to launch an encrypted messaging app after coming beneath stress from the Russian authorities when working at VK, a social community he created earlier than promoting it and leaving Russia in 2014.

He stated he then tried to settle in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco earlier than selecting Dubai, which he praised for its enterprise atmosphere and “neutrality”.

Individuals “love the independence. Additionally they love the privateness, the liberty, (there are) a whole lot of explanation why any person would change to Telegram,” Durov advised Carlson.

He stated on the time that the platform had greater than 900 million lively customers.

By basing itself within the United Arab Emirates, Telegram has been in a position to defend itself from moderation legal guidelines at a time when Western international locations are pressuring giant platforms to take away unlawful content material.

Telegram permits teams of as much as 200,000 members, which has led to accusations that it makes it simpler for false info to unfold virally, in addition to for customers to disseminate neo-Nazi, paedophilic, conspiratorial and terrorist content material.

Competitor messaging service WhatsApp launched worldwide limits on message forwarding in 2019 after it was accused of enabling the unfold of false info in India that led to lynchings.

© 2024 AFP