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Fortune
Fortune
Paolo Confino

Free-speech champion or cybercriminal? Here's why French authorities really arrested Telegram billionaire Pavel Durov

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov (Credit: Manuel Blondeau - Corbis)

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was a self-styled free speech advocate. Then he was arrested. 

French authorities detained Durov on Saturday when a private plane carrying him landed at Le Bourget airport north of Paris. The Russian tech CEO and founder of the online messaging app Telegram built a reputation as being an antiestablishment figure who protected ordinary people’s right to express themselves. 

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