Mr Durov was anticipated to seem in courtroom on Sunday. (File)
Paris, France:
Telegram chief government Pavel Durov is anticipated to seem in courtroom Sunday after being arrested by French police at an airport close to Paris for alleged offences associated to his common messaging app, sources advised AFP.
The Franco-Russian billionaire, 39, was detained at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital on Saturday night, one of many sources mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity.
Durov had arrived from Baku, in Azerbaijan, one other supply near the case mentioned.
France’s OFMIN, an workplace tasked with stopping violence in opposition to minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offences together with fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, one of many sources mentioned.
Durov is accused of failing to take motion to curb the felony use of his platform.
“Sufficient of Telegram’s impunity,” mentioned one of many investigators, including they have been stunned Durov got here to Paris realizing he was a wished man.
Platform of ‘privateness’
The encrypted messaging app, primarily based in Dubai, has positioned itself as a substitute for US-owned platforms, which have been criticised for his or her industrial exploitation of customers’ private knowledge.
Telegram has dedicated to by no means disclosing any details about its customers.
In a uncommon interview given to right-wing speak present host Tucker Carlson in April, Durov mentioned he obtained the concept to launch an encrypted messaging app after coming beneath strain from the Russian authorities when working at VK, a social community he created earlier than promoting it and leaving Russia in 2014.
He mentioned he then tried to settle in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco earlier than selecting Dubai, which he praised for its enterprise surroundings and “neutrality”.
Individuals “love the independence. In addition they love the privateness, the liberty, (there are) numerous the explanation why any individual would swap to Telegram,” Durov advised Carlson.
He mentioned on the time that the platform had greater than 900 million energetic customers.
By basing itself within the United Arab Emirates, Telegram has been in a position to defend itself from moderation legal guidelines at a time when Western international locations are pressuring massive platforms to take away unlawful content material.
Telegram permits teams of as much as 200,000 members, which has led to accusations that it makes it simpler for false info to unfold virally, in addition to for customers to disseminate neo-Nazi, paedophilic, conspiratorial and terrorist content material.
Competitor messaging service WhatsApp launched worldwide limits on message forwarding in 2019 after it was accused of enabling the unfold of false info in India that led to lynchings.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
