(Bloomberg) — The CEO of messaging service Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been detained in France on charges that the company failed to adequately address crimes on its app, including the spread of child sexual abuse material.
Most read articles on Bloomberg
The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire was detained at Le Bourget airport north of Paris on Saturday, according to a statement from Paris prosecutor Laure Vecuot. The following day, the judge in charge of the case extended his detention from 24 hours to a maximum of 96 hours.
Before the deadline expires on Wednesday evening, a magistrate judge must decide whether to charge Durov or release him and name him as a witness in the investigation.
Durov is being questioned as part of a case launched by the Paris prosecutor's office's cybercrime unit.
The investigating judge in charge of the case is looking into a wide range of charges, including refusing to cooperate with authorities in lawful wiretapping of the suspects, making child sexual abuse material available for sale, and aiding and abetting drug trafficking.
Early on Monday, an official from a French agency set up last year to prevent violence against minors posted on LinkedIn that the case centred around a “lack of platform moderation and cooperation.”
In a statement published on its platform on Sunday, the Dubai-based company said Durov had “nothing to hide” and insisted that Telegram complies with European law.
“It is absurd to claim that the platform or its owners are responsible for the misuse of their platform,” the statement declared. “We await a speedy resolution of this situation.”
Telegram, developed by Durov and his brother Nikolai, a programmer and mathematician, is one of the world's most popular messaging apps with 900 million active users, but its relatively laissez-faire approach to content moderation has led to allegations that it is often used to spread criminal and extremist content.
Before launching Telegram, the Durov brothers made their fortune by founding the social media network VKontakte in 2006. The platform quickly gained popularity in Russia, and Pavel Durov's net worth is now more than $9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
This success also made Durov a target for the Kremlin: in 2014, he fled the country and sold his shares in VKontakte.
Durov, who lives in Dubai, holds French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, according to the Telegram website. He has not commented on whether he has renounced his Russian citizenship.
Following Durov's detention, the Russian embassy in Paris said it “immediately asked the French authorities for an explanation and demanded that his rights be protected and that he be given access to the consulate,” adding that embassy officials were in contact with Durov's lawyers.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that Durov's arrest was “in no way a political decision” and that the case would be left to the judge.
“It is the judicial system that independently enforces the law,” Macron wrote.
(Updated with details from the Paris prosecutor's statement)
Most read articles on Bloomberg Businessweek
©2024 Bloomberg LP