Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said he is back home in Dubai seven months after he was arrested in France over charges the platform was used for criminal activity. Photo by Nick Lubushko/Wikipedia Commons
March 17 (UPI) — Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, said Monday he is back home in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, seven months after his arrest in France over charges the social messaging app was used for criminal activity.
Durov, 40, remains under investigation, a spokesperson for the Paris prosecutor’s office told NBC News. The prosecutor told the BBC that “the obligations of judicial supervision” had been suspended” between March 15 and April 7.
No conditions were stated about his departure from France.
“The process is ongoing, but it feels great to be home,” Durov posted on his Telegram channel Monday.
The billionaire, who was born in Russia and lives in Dubai, holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
The Guardian reported he flew to Dubai on Saturday morning from the airport at which he was arrested. The distance is about 3,300 miles.
“I want to thank the investigative judges for letting this happen, as well as my lawyers and team for their relentless efforts in demonstrating that, when it comes to moderation, cooperation and fighting crime for years Telegram not only met but exceeded its legal obligations,” Durov said.
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.
The platform, which has more than 950 million users, is popular in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as to some far-right Americans.
“I’m also deeply grateful for the millions of people around the world who have shown their support throughout this unexpected journey — it has meant a lot,” he wrote. “There is nothing our billion-strong community can’t overcome.”
In August, French police arrested Durov after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport north of Paris.
He was held under a warrant for offenses related to his messaging app. Durov is accused of not taking steps to curb criminal uses of Telegram, including drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud, Paris officials said.
He allegedly failed to cooperate with law enforcement and didn’t moderate the site.
Durova called his arrest “misguided” and “surprising.”
He said his platform is not “some sort of anarchic paradise.”
“If a country is unhappy with an Internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself,” Durov said in September in a statement on Telegram. “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach.”
One expert told the BBC that Telegram is “the dark web in your pocket.”
Durov was released by law enforcement, but required to stay in France.
He announced plans to “significantly improve” Telegram’s response to criminals who abuse the platform.
“While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk,” Durov said on Telegram.
“That’s why this year we are committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise.”
In December, Telegram said it partnered with the British-based Internet Watch Foundation to automatically flag and remove that material.