Telegram founder Pavel Durov “has nothing to hide” after his arrest in France, according to a statement put out by his messaging application firm.
In a statement, the company said: “Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act - its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving/
"Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe," it said. "It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform."
"We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”
The Russian-born billionare businessman, who set up the popular messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and placed in custody.
The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted a warning from Moscow to Paris he should be accorded his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said free speech in Europe was under attack.
There was no official confirmation from France of the arrest, but two French police sources and one Russian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Durov was arrested shortly after arriving from Azerbaijan.
One of the two French police sources said ahead of the jet's arrival police had spotted he was on the passenger list and moved to arrest him because he was the subject of an arrest warrant in France.
Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a third French police source said.
A cybersecurity gendarmerie unit and France's national anti-fraud police unit are leading the investigation, that source said, adding the investigative judge was specialised in organised crime.
Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he has sold.
The encrypted application, with close to one billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
Durov, who is estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5 billion, said in April some governments had sought to pressure him but the app should remain a "neutral platform" and not a "player in geopolitics".
Durov came up with the idea of an encrypted messaging app as a way to communicate while he faced pressure in Russia. His younger brother, Nikolai, designed the encryption.
"I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone," Durov said in April about his exit from Russia and search for a home for his company which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered - and sometimes graphic and misleading - content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.
The platform has become what some analysts call 'a virtual battlefield' for the war, used heavily by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and his officials, as well as the Russian government.
Russia's foreign ministry said it had sent a note to Paris demanding access to Durov, although it said he had French citizenship.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Durov had misjudged by fleeing Russia and thinking that he would never have to cooperate with the security services abroad.
Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order granting state security services access to its users' encrypted messages.
