Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of the encrypted messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France on Saturday evening. He was reportedly arrested at the Bourget airport (close to Paris) while traveling on his private jet, an anonymous source told TF1 TV.
The authorities are said to have had an arrest warrant related to the app insufficiently moderating content of criminal activity. The 39-year-old billionaire was traveling to France from a trip to Azerbaijan. Durov is a Russian national and currently maintains dual citizenship with the United Arab Emirates and France. His primary residence is in Dubai, the most populated city in the United Arab Emirates, which also serves as the primary business location for Telegram.
Russia’s embassy in France is taking “immediate steps” for more information on the situation. The embassy said in a statement: “We immediately asked the French authorities to explain the reasons for this detention and asked that his rights be protected and that consular access be granted. So far, the French side refuses to cooperate on this issue.”
Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble, commented on the situation saying, “France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech.”
I’m a little late to this, but for good reason — I’ve just safely departed from Europe.
France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech.
Rumble will not stand for this behavior and…
— Chris Pavlovski (@chrispavlovski) August 25, 2024
Elon Musk tweeted a clip of Durov being interviewed by Tucker Carlson, commenting “#FreePavel.”
#FreePavel
pic.twitter.com/B7AcJWswMs— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2024
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted to X that “The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent.”
France just arrested Pavel Durov, founder & CEO of the encrypted, uncensored Telegram platform. The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 25, 2024
According to Russian news channel “Baza” on Telegram: “Russian officials have received an order to delete official correspondence in Telegram… such an order was received by employees of a number of law enforcement agencies, as well as officials of the presidential administration and the Russian government.”
Many pro-Russia channels operate on Telegram. Ukraine and those supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia denounce this activity as propaganda to advance the Russian war effort, while the Russian perspective would refer to the activity on the platform as simply communications.
Russia had been attempting to restrict the usage of Telegram in its country for years before ditching the effort in June of 2020. Leaders in Moscow had cited terrorist threats as the reason to restrict the app after it was used by a suicide bomber that killed fifteen in St. Petersburg in April of 2017. Some characterized the decision to lift the ban on Telegram in Russia as being due to a lack of effectiveness in the restrictions.
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