Telegram CEO is detained at French airport

The 39-year-old was arrested after his private plane landed in Le Bourget Airport in northern Paris.

By Thomas Mackintosh

Aug 25, 2024 07:28 AM

Mr. Durov is a native of Russia and is now living in Dubai. He is a dual citizen of France as well as the United Arab Emirates and France.

Telegram is especially well-liked particularly in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states.

The application was blocked in Russia in 2018following a previous decision by Mr. Durov to give out the user’s data. However, the ban was lifted in 2021.

Telegram is considered to be one of the top platform for social media in the same way as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.

Mr. Durov created Telegram in 2013, and quit Russia in 2014 when he refused to comply with demands from the government to block opposition groups via the VKontakte social network which he later sold.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram asking if Western human rights organizations will be silent about the detention of Mr Durov. they criticized Russia’s decision to “create obstacles” to the operation of Telegram in Russia in the year 2018.

Many Russian officials have criticized the arrest of a businessman.

X founder Elon Musk who has come under a lot of criticism of his moderation policies and content hosted by his personal social media platform, wrote repeatedly about the situation. He tweeted a post with the hashtag #freepavel and wrote in a subsequent post: “POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.”