Telegram founder Pavel Durov reportedly arrested in France

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested Saturday evening as he was leaving his private jet at Bourget airport in France. in response to the French television network TF1.

The reports of Durov’s arrest have sparked widespread discussion and speculation on social media, including on Telegram itself, although they seem like largely based on the identical few reports in French media. Neither Telegram nor a spokesman for France’s national anti-fraud office ONAF immediately responded to requests for comment.

According to TF1, Durov has been served with an arrest warrant in France based on a preliminary police investigation. French authorities say Telegram’s lack of content moderation and unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement make Durov an accomplice in drug trafficking, money laundering and the sharing of kid pornography, which allegedly takes place via the app.

Reports of the arrest will likely spark further debate in regards to the extent to which messaging apps must be held accountable (legally and otherwise) for the messages their users share.

Forbes estimated net price of durov for $15.5 billion. Although he was born in Russia, he left the country in 2014 after resisting government pressure to release data on Ukrainian protest leaders from his former social network Vkontakte. Durov now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is headquartered, and his plane reportedly flew in from Azerbaijan.

Durov said last month that Telegram has 950 million energetic users, with a goal of reaching 1 billion this yr. At the identical time, the corporate says it has only about 30 engineers — a really small team for an app of Telegram’s scale, which likely makes Durov much more essential to the corporate’s operations.