Pavel Durov was reportedly snagged after stepping off the private plane at a Bourget airport, which is outside Paris – as he had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France
The founder and CEO of Telegram messaging app Pavel Durov has reportedly been arrested at a French airport after stepping off a private plane.
Police snagged the billionaire shortly after he landed at the Bourget airport, outside Paris, following a flight from Azerbaijan, French outlet TF1 info reported. Durov, 39, was travelling aboard his private jet and had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France, the news site added.
It is understood Durov was arrested at around 8pm local time while accompanied by his bodyguard. Telegram, founded in 2013, allows users to exchange messages, share media and files, and hold private and group voice or video calls as well as public livestreams. It has more than 950 million monthly active users, with India leading in the number of users.
Durov and his brother Nikolai founded the app in 2013. Despite being born in Russia, Durov now lives in Dubai, where the company is based and holds dual citizenship of both France and the United Arab Emirates. He left Russia in 2014, around one year after Telegram was launched as a rival to WhatsApp.
Telegram users can have “secret chats”, in which messages are stored on devices rather than the cloud, and messages can also be set to self-destruct after a certain time period.
Earlier this month, the social media site said it would be taking action on those using it to incite violence amidst the UK riots. Telegram said it was removing posts calling for violence, as it emerged one major group channel with a reported 15,000 members used to publicise planned protests.
A list of 38 targets including immigration services, immigration lawyers and refugee centres was posted on Telegram. One account seen by the Mirror found the chat organiser had told hundreds of subscribers “time for war” and “above are your targets lads”, in reference to the immigration services.
A new channel was subsequently set up and taken down. A spokesperson for the messaging service told the BBC : “Telegram’s moderators are actively monitoring the situation and are removing channels and posts containing calls to violence. Calls to violence are explicitly forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service.
“Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring of public parts of the platform, sophisticated AI tools and user reports to ensure content that breaches Telegram’s terms is removed.”
Durov who is estimated to be worth around £12 billion, said in an interview earlier this year Telegram would remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics.”
