Telegram CEO Pavel Durov left Russia in 2021.
Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested on the Bourget airport outdoors Paris on Saturday night, French native media stated, citing unnamed sources.
They stated the investigation was targeted on an absence of moderators on Telegram, and that police thought of that this example allowed felony exercise to go on undeterred on the messaging app.
Telegram didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark. The French Inside Ministry and police had no remark. Russia’s Overseas Ministry stated it was taking steps to “make clear” the state of affairs and questioned whether or not Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) would search his launch..
What is thought about Durov and Telegram:
* Russian-born Durov, 39, is the founder and proprietor of messaging app Telegram, a free-to-use platform that competes with different social media platforms akin to Fb’s WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat. The platform goals to surpass one billion lively month-to-month customers inside a 12 months.
* Telegram is influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the previous Soviet Union. It has turn into a crucial supply of data on Russia’s warfare in Ukraine, used closely by each Moscow and Kyiv officers. Some analysts name the app “a digital battlefield” for the warfare.
* Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to adjust to authorities calls for to close down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he bought.
* Russian and French media say Durov grew to become a French citizen in 2021. He moved himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017.
* “I’d reasonably be free than to take orders from anybody,” Durov advised US journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his exit from Russia and seek for a house for his firm which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
* In the identical interview, Durov stated that, past cash or Bitcoin, he had no main property akin to actual property, jets or yachts, as he wished to be free.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
