paris – Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday night, TF1 TV and BFM TV said, citing unnamed sources.

Telegram, particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union, ranks as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat. It aims to reach 1 billion users in the next year.

Telegram is based in Dubai and was founded by Russian-born Durov. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition groups on his VK social media platform, which he sold.

Durov was traveling aboard his private jet, TF1 said on its website, adding that he had been the subject of an arrest warrant in France as part of a preliminary police investigation.

TF1 and BFM both said the investigation focused on the lack of moderators on Telegram, and that police believed this situation allowed criminal activity to continue unchecked on the messaging app.

Telegram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The French Interior Ministry and the police had no comment.

The app becomes popular during wartime

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the primary source of unfiltered — and sometimes graphic and misleading — content from both sides about the war and the politics of the conflict.

The app has become a preferred means of communication for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials. The Kremlin and the Russian government also use it to spread their news. It has also become one of the few places where Russians can access news about the war.

TF1 said Durov had traveled from Azerbaijan and was arrested around 18:00 GMT.

Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, said some governments had tried to pressure him but the app, which now has 900 million active users, should remain a “neutral platform” and not an “actor in geopolitics.”

Russia’s embassy in France told Russian state news agency TASS that it was not contacted by Durov’s team following reports of the arrest, but that it was taking “immediate” steps to clarify the situation.

Bloggers encourage protesting French embassies

Russia’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, and several other Russian politicians were quick to accuse France of acting like a dictatorship.

“Some naive people still do not understand that if they play (a) more or less visible role in (the) international information space, it is not safe for them to visit countries that are moving towards much more totalitarian societies,” Ulyanov wrote on X , formerly Twitter .

Several Russian bloggers called for protests at French embassies around the world at lunchtime on Sunday.

• Reuters

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