Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested at French airport

[Onauk]

Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov has been arrested by French police at an airport north of Paris.

Mr Durov was detained after his private jet had landed at Le Bourget Airport, French media reported.

According to officials the 39-year-old billionaire was arrested under a warrant for offences related to the popular messaging app. The investigation is reportedly about a lack of moderation, with Mr Durov accused of failing to take steps to curb criminal uses of Telegram.

The app is accused of failure to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud. Telegram has previously denied having insufficient moderation.

[0]

Pavel Durov was given French citizenship in 2021[1] by French Minister to Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves le Drian as a foreigner emeritus[2].

[0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg2kz9kn93o

[1]: https://www.tf1info.fr/high-tech/tel...e-2316094.html

[2]: https://www.service-public.fr/partic...F15830?lang=en

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Now do Elon Musk.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Apologies for the bump but Craig Murray has just published an excellent analysis on his blog that's well worth reading:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archi...-abuse-of-law/

[Onauk]

Originally Posted by Head_on_a_Stick

Apologies for the bump but Craig Murray has just published an excellent analysis on his blog that's well worth reading:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archi...-abuse-of-law/

Thank you for this law oriented analysis. I find this paragraph very interesting:

Unless he refused to remove or act over specific individual content specified by the French authorities, or unless he set up Telegram with the specific intent of facilitating organised crime, I do not see how Durov is not protected under Articles 20 and 30 and other safeguards found in the Digital Services Act.

If the French authorities did make demands, it looks like Telegram did not answer them. This has been reported by TF1 [1](French TV channel) and Le Monde (French daily newspaper)[2].

From TF1:

Le milliardaire franco-russe était sous la menace d’un mandat de recherche français, notamment pour l’absence de modération et de coopération avec les forces de l’ordre par Telegram.

My attempt at a translation would be:

The Franco-Russian billionaire was under the threat of a French search warrant for lack of moderation and cooperation with the authorities concerning Telegram.

From Le Monde:

The investigation also focuses on a very specific point, at the heart of the complaints leveled at Telegram by multiple governments over the past decade: the "refusal to communicate, at the request of the authorized authorities, the information or documents needed to carry out and use the interceptions authorized by law."

[1]https://www.tf1info.fr/high-tech/tel...e-2316094.html

[2]https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/art...722400_13.html