Telegram CEO Pavlov Durov has been banned from leaving France after being accused of complicity in running an online platform that allegedly facilitated the dissemination of sexual images involving children, creating an uncertain future for the messaging app that has become one of the world’s largest social media platforms.
Durov was arrested at 8 p.m. local time Saturday after his private jet landed at an airport near Paris. He was then detained for four days as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity on Telegram. He was charged Wednesday evening local time and banned from leaving the country, according to a statement issued by the Paris prosecutor. He was released under judicial supervision, the statement said, and must post bail of 5 million euros ($5.5 million) and report to a police station in France twice a week.
The founder of Telegram has been placed under formal investigation over a range of allegations including child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, importing cryptology without prior notification and an “almost complete lack” of cooperation with French authorities, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Wednesday.
French authorities have noted “Telegram’s almost total lack of response to legal requests,” Beccuau noted. “That is what led JUNALCO [the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime] to launch an investigation into the possible criminal liability of the executives of this messaging service for committing these crimes,” she said. The initial investigation began in February 2024, and the initial investigations were coordinated by OFMIN, an agency set up to prevent violence against minors, she added in a statement.
“It is absurd to claim that the platform or its owner is responsible for abuses on that platform” The telegram said on Sunday, before Durov was charged. The platform, which has 900 million lively users, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
Since his arrest, both the UAE and Russia have requested consular access to Durov, who holds citizenship in both countries. It is unclear why Durov, who also obtained a French passport after leaving Russia, was in France. “I don’t take vacations,” he said on his Telegram channel in June.
Russia has said, without evidence, that Durov’s arrest is an attempt by the United States to exert influence over the platform through France. “Telegram is one of the few and at the same time the largest Internet platforms that the United States has no influence over,” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said in a statement on the app.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that Durov’s detention was “in no way a political decision.” “It is the judiciary, fully independent, that must enforce the law,” he added. in the post on X. The European Commission told WIRED that the arrest was made under French criminal law and is not related to the modern European regulations on tech platforms. “We are closely monitoring developments related to Telegram and are ready to cooperate with the French authorities if relevant,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be named.