Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has been arrested at Bourget airport exterior Paris for alleged offences associated to his messaging app.
Native sources stated on Sunday that Durov, 39, had been travelling on his non-public jet from Azerbaijan and {that a} French arrest warrant focused him as a part of a preliminary investigation.
The offences levelled at Durov by France’s OFMIN, an company that offers with the prevention of violence in opposition to minors, embody fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and organised crime, in keeping with the AFP information company, which quoted officers talking on situation of anonymity.
The Franco-Russian billionaire can be accused of failing to take motion in opposition to the dangerous use of Telegram.
Durov faces doable indictment on Sunday, in keeping with French media.
TF1 TV and BFM TV, each quoting unidentified sources, stated the investigation was centered on an absence of moderators and that police thought of that this case allowed felony exercise to go on undeterred on the messaging app.
One of many investigators informed AFP they had been shocked Durov entered France regardless of the warrant in opposition to him, including “sufficient of Telegram’s impunity”.
In the meantime, the Russian embassy in France has demanded consular entry to Durov and demanded that his rights be ensured, Russian state information company TASS reported on Sunday.
The embassy stated France has thus far “prevented engagement” on the state of affairs with Durov. Russian diplomats are involved with Durov’s lawyer, the embassy stated.
Russia-Ukraine warfare
With its fascinating encryption options, Telegram, whose consumer base is shut to 1 billion, was created by Durov and his brother in 2013 in Russia.
He fled the nation in 2014 and travelled throughout the globe to seek for a house for his firm, together with the German capital, Berlin, and San Francisco in the USA.
However after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram turned the primary supply of unfiltered and typically graphic content material from each opponents.
The app is closely utilized by Russian and Ukrainian officers, together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The platform has develop into what some analysts name ‘a digital battlefield’ for the warfare, used closely by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officers, in addition to the Russian authorities.
Furthermore, as a consequence of Telegram’s rising reputation, a number of international locations in Europe, together with France, have scrutinised the app as a consequence of safety and knowledge breach considerations.
Russia’s consultant to worldwide organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, accused France of performing as a “totalitarian” society.
“Some naive individuals nonetheless don’t perceive that in the event that they play kind of seen function in worldwide info area it’s not secure for them to go to international locations which transfer in the direction of rather more totalitarian societies,” Ulyanov wrote on X.
A number of Russian bloggers have referred to as for protests exterior French embassies worldwide.
However Ben Aris, editor in chief of bne IntelliNews informed Al Jazeera the Durov can be in hassle in Russia since he refused to provide the Kremlin entry to the digital keys which might allow them to learn non-public Telegram messages.
Russia started blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to adjust to a court docket order to grant state safety companies entry to its customers’ encrypted messages.
“Durov was in Azerbaijan the place Putin lately was… he’s in all probability attempting to foyer Putin to cease the block of Telegram within the nation,” Aris stated.
In the meantime, tech mogul and billionaire Elon Musk additionally criticised Durov’s arrest, saying, “It’s 2030 in Europe, and also you’re being executed for liking a meme.”
Telegram didn’t instantly reply and the French Ministry of the Inside and police had no remark, the Reuters information company stated.