Telegram Boss 'Has Nothing To Hide': Company After Pavel Durov's Arrest In France

Telegram said on Sunday its chief executive Pavel Durov had “nothing to hide” despite his arrest over allegations that he failed to curb criminal activity on the messaging app.

“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards,” the company said in a statement published via the app. “Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” it added. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

‘Attack on free speech’

The Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram 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 on Sunday a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free speech in Europe was under attack.

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Durov was reportedly arrested shortly after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan. 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.

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 1 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.

(With agency inputs)