Pavel Durov founded Telegram; who is he, and why was he arrested?
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested at an airport outside Paris on Saturday night and held in custody for alleged crimes related to the messaging app.
The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire was charged with failing to mitigate the misuse of his social media and messaging platform for alleged criminal activities.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for Durov in connection with an investigation launched on July 8 into organized crime, drug trafficking, fraud and the distribution of pornographic images of minors on the platform.
Telegram said in a statement posted to X that it complies with EU laws and that CEO Durov has “nothing to hide.”
