French police arrest Telegram founder Pavel Durov at airport near Paris

PARIS: Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at an airport outside Paris by French authorities. An arrest warrant had already been issued against the Telegram founder, CNN reported.

Officers from France’s anti-fraud office, attached to French customs, took the French-Russian billionaire into custody on Saturday evening after he arrived at Bourget Airport on a flight from Azerbaijan, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

Durov, 39, was wanted under a French arrest warrant due to the lack of moderation on Telegram, which allegedly led to the platform being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and sharing pedophilic content.

According to BFMTV, the Telegram founder had not regularly travelled to France and Europe since the arrest warrant was issued.

Notably, France issued an arrest warrant for Durov on charges of complicity in drug trafficking, crimes against children and fraud due to the lack of moderation on Telegram and his failure to cooperate with law enforcement, the Moscow Times reported, citing French local media.

The Russian-born founder of Telegram, which he says boasts over 900 million users, is currently based in Dubai. He became a naturalised French citizen in August 2021.

Durov, who is also the founder of the VKontakte social network, left Russia in 2014 after he refused to share VKontakte users' data with Russian security services. Later, Russia unsuccessfully attempted to block Telegram over its refusal to provide users’ online communications to security services.

Telegram is widely used by Russian speakers. It has become a key platform for sharing information about the war in Ukraine and is reportedly used by the Russian military to communicate.