Russian-French billionaire and founder of messaging app Telegram Pavel Durov has been arrested at Bourget airport near Paris.
The 39-year-old tech founder was reportedly detained while leaving his private jet on Saturday evening.According to French media, Durov was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation centred on Telegram's alleged lack of moderators, which authorities believe has allowed criminal activity to flourish unchecked on the platform.
Telegram has made a statement that Durov has “nothing to hide”.
Here’s a closer look at Durov and his turbulent past.
Who is Pavel Durov?
Once described as Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg, Durov made his name by founding the social media platform VK in October 2006.
However, he was made to leave the company in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to share details of protestors active on the site.
Telegram had already been launched in 2013 at this point, as part of a joint venture by Durov and his brother, Nikolai.
According to Telegram, Pavel supported the app “financially and ideologically while Nikolai's input is technological”.
Pavel continued to run Telegram from Dubai, working under dual citizenship from the UAE and France.
The Russian exile has been known for his eccentricities. While he doesn’t often speak to the media, Durov does share updates to his Telegram channel of more than 11 million subscribers.
For example, he revealed in 2019 that he was giving up consuming food as part of a radical diet thought to improve productivity and focus.
More recently, on July 29, Durov also said that he has more than 100 children following sperm donations.
“Fifteen years ago, a friend of mine approached me with a weird request,” he wrote. “He said that he and his wife couldn’t have kids due to a fertility issue and asked me to donate sperm at a clinic for them to have a baby.
“The boss of the clinic told me that ‘high-quality donor material’ was in short supply and that it was my civic duty to donate more sperm to anonymously help more couples...
“Fast forward to 2024, my past donating activity has helped over a hundred couples in 12 countries to have kids. Moreover, many years after I stopped being a donor, at least one IVF clinic still has my frozen sperm available for anonymous use by families who want to have kids.”
The tech billionaire added that he wants to “open-source” his DNA so that his biological children can connect with one another more easily.
What is Telegram?
Durov’s arrest comes as part of an investigation into insufficient moderation on Telegram, with the belief that a lack of compliance has led to cyber and financial crimes being conducted on Telegram.
As of July 2024, Telegram has 950 million active users, making it the world’s fourth most popular messaging service.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram stated in a public statement posted to the company’s official channel on the Telegram app. “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation.”
The arrest of Durov has sparked condemnation from privacy and free speech advocates, with National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden calling the action “an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association”.
Telegram maintains that, while there have been controversies associated with the app, “calls to violence” are explicitly forbidden and that any channels containing them are removed.
At an event in 2015, Durov stated that “the right for privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening, like terrorism”.
In his most recent message on the Telegram channel, posted on 14 August, Durov wrote: “When I turned 11 in 1995, I made a promise to myself to become smarter, stronger and freer every day.
“Today, Telegram turns 11 years old, and it’s ready to make the same commitment. Every day, Telegram should become: Smarter (more features for the people); Stronger (more popularity among users); Freer (more independent and self-sufficient).”
