• He was arrested on Saturday, August 24, 2024.
• Durov, who is also the owner of Messaging App Telegram was arrested after his private jet had landed at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France.
Over the past first half of this week, the name Pavel Durov has made headlines on various local and international news headlines. This was because of the arrest of the billionaire investor in France.
Durov, who is also the owner of the App Telegram, was arrested after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France.
He was arrested on Saturday, August 24, 2024.
At the initial stages of the arrest, officials said the 39-year-old billionaire was arrested under a warrant for offences related to his messaging app.
Other reports said Durov had been detained over alleged offences relating to a lack of moderation on the platform.
Who is Durov?
Durov, who founded Telegram, was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai.
He holds dual citizenship in the United Arab Emirates and France.
French Prosecutors on Wednesday said Durov has been placed under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organised crime on his messaging app.
Placed under judicial supervision
He has also been barred from leaving France as investigations continue and placed under judicial supervision and he has to pay a €5m (£4.2m; $5.6m) deposit.
The Russian-born billionaire, who is also a French national, also has to show up at a French police station twice a week.
Prosecutors said the offences he is alleged to have committed include complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable illicit transactions by an organised gang, refusal to communicate with authorities and complicity in organised criminal distribution of sexual images of children.
Telegram's response and President Macron's statement
Communication from Telegram over the arrest said its CEO has nothing to hide.
The messaging app insisted that its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.
"It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform," Telegram said in a statement.
Upon his arrest, several international quotas, including Russia, had accused the French government of having a hand in Durov’s arrest.
French President Emmanuel Macron, however, refuted the claims, insisting that it was not in any way political.
He noted that it was all part of a judicial investigation and only judges could make a decision on the matter.
"The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter," he said.
"France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.
"In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights. It is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law."
Debate on removal of child abuse material online
The BBC revealed on Wednesday that Telegram has repeatedly refused to join international programmes aimed at detecting and removing child abuse material online.
Telegram has previously insisted its moderation is "within industry standards and constantly improving.".
However, unlike all other social networks, it is not signed up to programmes like NCMEC’s CyberTipline which has more than 1,600 internet companies registered.
NCMEC has repeatedly asked Telegram to join to help tackle child sexual abuse material (CSAM) but it has ignored requests.
Telegram also refuses to work with the Internet Watch Foundation, which is the UK’s equivalent of NCMEC, according to BBC.
Telegram is also not a part of the TakeItDown programme that works to remove revenge porn.
Another norm that Telegram does not conform to in the usual way is Transparency Reporting.
Every six months, social networks publish a list of all the content taken down because of police requests.
Most other social networks, including Meta's apps, Snapchat, and TikTok publish their reports online with previous years in a library to refer to.
Telegram has no such website and only a channel on the app with no library history of transparency reports. It also describes it's approach to Transparency Reports as "semiannual".
Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine, and former Soviet Union states.
The app was banned in Russia in 2018, after a previous refusal by Mr Durov to hand over user data. But the ban was reversed in 2021.
Telegram is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Durov founded Telegram in 2013 and currently has more than 950 million registered users.