Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire CEO of social media messaging app Telegram, has been indicted in France for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
This video is from a previous report.
According to the Paris prosecutor's office, Durov is under judicial supervision and banned from leaving the country.
He avoided prison on bail of 5 million euros, according to prosecutors, and must report to police stations twice a week for tests.
Prosecutors told ABC News that the CEO was arrested in connection with an “ongoing judicial investigation” and charged on the same day he was released from police custody.
Durov, 39, was arrested shortly after arriving on a private jet at Le Bourget airport outside Paris late on August 24. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed the arrest two days later.
According to the Paris prosecutor's office, Durov was charged with 12 offences for his alleged reluctance to tackle cyber and financial crimes carried out on the Telegram platform.
Prosecutors said Monday that the charges relate to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform.
In a statement, Macron said Durov's arrest was “not political” and that “France values ​​freedom of expression and communication, innovation and enterprise above all else – and that will remain true.”
What is Telegram?
Telegram is one of the world's most popular messaging apps, with around 800 million active users, and a large user base in Russia and Ukraine.
Launched in 2013, Telegram was designed to address growing concerns about digital privacy and censorship. Unlike many messaging apps at the time, Telegram was built with a focus on security, offering end-to-end encryption and features that prioritize user privacy.
The app's popularity has made Durov one of the richest people in the world, with Forbes magazine estimating his net worth at around $15.5 billion.
The app set itself apart from rivals like Facebook Messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp with its emphasis on free speech and resistance to government censorship.
The app positions itself as a haven for activists and journalists, with features like self-destructing messages, secret chats and a robust channel feature.
Additionally, Telegram offers a platform for large messaging groups, allowing you to add 200,000 users to a chat.
Due to the size of its groups, Telegram has been criticized for hosting far-right and extremist groups, most recently after the British government accused the company of linking extremist groups to organizing riots across the country in July.
Who is Pavel Durov?
Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia in 1984, Durov began his foray into tech entrepreneurship in 2006 when he founded the Russian social network VKontakte (VK).
Likened to Facebook, VK provides a platform for social interaction, content sharing and networking and has quickly gained popularity among Russian-speaking users.
But the platform's success has drawn scrutiny from the Russian government, and Durov has come under increasing pressure to comply with government requests for user data.
In 2014, Durov was forced to leave VK after refusing to comply with demands to close opposition communities on the platform.
He reportedly refused to block the page of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the platform.
After leaving his job at VK, Durov left Russia for Dubai, where he runs Telegram, which was founded a year earlier in 2013.
Durov, a frequent visitor to Europe from the UAE, received French citizenship in 2021.
Reaction to Durov's arrest
Following Durov's arrest over the weekend, Elon Musk posted #FreePavel on X, sharing a clip from an earlier interview the Telegram founder had with Tucker Carlson.
In a post on X, US whistleblower Edward Snowden called Durov's arrest “a violation of the fundamental human rights of speech and association.”
“I am shocked and deeply saddened that President Macron would descend to the point of taking hostages in order to gain access to private communications. This is a disgrace not only to France but to the world,” Snowden wrote.
ABC News' Hugo Lienhart and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
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