Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested on Saturday night whereas leaving his personal jet at France’s Bourget airport, according to French television network TF1.
Studies of Durov’s arrest sparked widespread dialogue and hypothesis on social media, together with on Telegram itself, though it appears to be largely primarily based on the identical handful of stories in French media. Neither Telegram nor a spokesperson for France’s nationwide anti-fraud workplace ONAF instantly responded to a request for remark.
In response to TF1, Durov confronted a warrant in France primarily based on a preliminary police investigation. The French authorities reportedly declare that Telegram’s lack of content material moderation and unwillingness to cooperate with legislation enforcement make Durov an confederate to the drug trafficking, cash laundering, and sharing of kid pornography that allegedly happen by way of the app.
The reported arrest will doubtless gas additional debate across the extent to which messaging apps must be held accountable (legally and in any other case) for the messages their customers share.
Forbes estimates Durov’s net worth at $15.5 billion. Though born in Russia, he left the country in 2014 after resisting authorities strain to launch information about Ukrainian protest leaders from his earlier social community Vkontakte. Durov now lives in Dubai, the place Telegram is predicated, and his airplane was reportedly flying in from Azerbaijan.
Durov mentioned final month that Telegram had 950 million active users, with a objective of reaching 1 billion this 12 months. On the similar time, the corporate claims to have around only 30 engineers — a really small crew for an app of Telegram’s scale, doubtless making Durov much more vital to the corporate’s operation.
