Aug. 25 (UPI) — Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov was arrested by French police after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport north of Paris on Saturday night.
The 39-year-old billionaire was arrested under a warrant for offenses related to his messaging app, which has more than 900 million users. Durov is accused of failing to take steps to curb criminal uses of Telegram, including drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud, officials said.
He has allegedly failed to cooperate with law enforcement and failed to moderate the site.
Durov, who was born in Russia and lives in Dubai, holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
He founded Telegram in 2013 and left Russia one year later after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold.
Russian Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram asking whether Western human rights non-governmental organizations would be silent on Durov’s arrest, after they criticized Russia’s decision to “create obstacles” to the work of Telegram in Russia in 2018.
Telegram ranks behind social media apps X, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X, described the news as the latest example of “dangerous times” and listed different countries’ actions.
“Free speech is under attack all across the globe. Now is the time to fight. If they win, there’s no going back,” he wrote.
His message were included among information about SpaceX, which he also owns.
Robert F. Kennedy, the independent presidential candidate who endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, wrote on X,: “The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent.”
Actor William Shatner celebrated Durov’s arrest.
“The CEO of @telegram was arrested today in France for failing to moderate his platform. Good. They do nothing to prevent fraud & scams. I’m tired of the scammers who use that platform to pretend they are me,” he wrote.