Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France over alleged app-linked illegal activities
Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, was reportedly arrested in France on Saturday evening while disembarking from his private jet at Bourget airport. The news, initially reported by French television network TF1, has sparked widespread discussion and speculation across social media platforms, including Telegram.
Neither Telegram nor France’s national anti-fraud office, ONAF, have provided comments on the matter. The arrest is linked to a preliminary police investigation, with French authorities alleging that Telegram’s inadequate content moderation and lack of cooperation with law enforcement have implicated Durov in drug trafficking, money laundering, and the dissemination of child pornography via the app. Telegram's rising popularity in recent years has drawn increased scrutiny from several European countries, including France, particularly concerning security and data breach issues.
Durov is known as an old-school cyber-libertarian, strongly advocating for privacy and encryption, a stance that has resonated with debates in the US regarding law enforcement's access to encrypted communications. The arrest has prompted calls from several Russian bloggers for protests at French embassies worldwide, while news about the future of the executive and the app is still awaited.
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External links
- INFO TF1/LCI - Le fondateur et PDG de la messagerie Telegram interpellé en FranceTF1 INFO • Official source
- Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in FranceReuters
- Telegram CEO Pavel Durov detained at airport in FranceCNN
- Shocker: French make surprise arrest of Telegram founder at Paris airportArs Technica
- Telegram founder Pavel Durov reportedly arrested in FranceTechCrunch
Comments
An utter shame. The USA is the last country in the world that actually has free speech.
Is this meant as a joke? The US doesn't even have proper data protection laws and regularly shuts down access to websites even if fully legal. For example they blocked access to an Iranian news site before. The US isnt even in the top 50 of the World Press Freedom Index.
Yes, there is a limit to free speech in America, for example, terrorist activities (like the Iranian sites) or child pornography.
But the USA is really the only country where you are constitutionally guaranteed to not be arrested for criticizing the government or saying whatever those in power deem to be hate speech.
So long as you manage to not get randomly shot.
The accusation is that it promotes ‘illegal activities’, but it is an excuse. In Spain a few months ago the three big media (Atresmedia, Mediaset and Movistar) took Telegram to court for promoting ‘copyrighted content’ from their TV channels and they are trying to ban Telegram in Spain, it was even announced in the news that it would be banned temporarily, people start using vpns and proxies and finally then judge Pedraz said it was an ‘abusive decision’.
Now these globalist people directly arrest the CEO of one of the few big companies that has only one CEO with 100% of the shares and permits free speech. Then we say we live in a democratic world.
There's no such thing as "a democratic world," it's nonsense. I suggest you actually go read what democracy is before posting such idiotic nonsense. There are democratic countries, and the fact that their systems don't allow scott-free crime or hate speech doesn't make them less democratic. What's undemocratic is for a government to stay in power for 20+ years, kill or imprison its critics and political opponents and censor all mass media they can reach (say hi to Russia).
Do you read the text, I know that there is no "democracy". It is called sarcasm...
Centralized platforms will always be vulnerable to governments. They simply cannot act independently - either they submit or something will happen to them
Telegram isn't helpful in piracy etc anyways, most groups get banned so neither totally lawful neither totally good stuck in between somewhere.