Telegram founder arrested over platform’s ‘lack of moderation’ on child sex abuse

Telegram has said its chief executive has “nothing to hide” after French authorities detained Pavel Durov over the messaging app’s moderation of alleged criminal activity on the platform, including the spread of child sexual abuse material.

In a surprise move that has escalated the global debate over free speech and raised tensions with Moscow, the Russia-born billionaire was arrested at Paris-Le Bourget airport when he arrived in France on his private jet from Azerbaijan on Saturday evening, a French police official has confirmed.

Ofmin, a French police agency set up last year focused on preventing violence against minors, said on Monday that Durov is alleged to have failed to adequately moderate criminal activity.

“At the heart of this issue is the lack of moderation and co-operation by the platform (which has nearly 1 billion users), particularly in the fight against child sex crimes,” Jean-Michel Bernigaud, the secretary-general of Ofmin, wrote on LinkedIn on Monday.

The Paris prosecutor’s office has confirmed that an investigation into Durov is active but refused to comment further. On Sunday, the investigating magistrate extended his detention from 24 to up to 96 hours, AFP reported

French authorities had been investigating whether Telegram’s moderation failures had helped facilitate illegal activity including terrorism, drug peddling, money laundering, fraud and child exploitation.

Some reports suggested there had been a warrant out for Durov’s arrest, but Telegram said the entrepreneur had “nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe”.

In a statement on Sunday, Dubai-based Telegram said its moderation was “within industry standards and constantly improving”, adding that it was abiding by EU laws including the Digital Services Act. The legislation, which came into force this year, requires platforms to police harmful content and disinformation more closely, or risk penalties or being restricted in the bloc.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram said. “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”

Durov’s arrest marks the most drastic national action against a social media chief to date and threatens to further ignite global debate over whether platforms should prioritise online safety or free speech.

Free speech proponents such as Elon Musk have hit out at French authorities, with the billionaire owner of rival platform X posting the hashtag “#freepavel” on his platform.

Durov has been known as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia” after co-founding the country’s most popular social media network, VKontakte, in his native St Petersburg in 2007. He fled Russia in 2014 after allegedly refusing to comply with Moscow's demands for access to the data of Ukrainian users protesting against a pro-Russia administration.

Founded in 2013, Telegram has exploded in popularity, nearing 1bn users and becoming one of the main communication tools in conflict zones and humanitarian crises such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Durov has taken a hands-off approach to moderation and cast the app as unassailable by governments. However, some researchers have warned that it has become a hub for illicit activity and extremism as a result.

While Durov now has dual French-Emirati citizenship, his Russian roots prompted some lawmakers in Moscow to call for his release and suggest the arrest was politically motivated, while the Russian embassy in France said it had requested consular access to Durov.

In recent years, Durov has tried to distance himself and the app from Russia, amid claims by critics that the Kremlin might still have links to or leverage over Telegram.

“He thought his biggest problems were in Russia and left . . . he wanted to be a brilliant ‘citizen of the world’, living well without a homeland,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now a prominent rightwing commentator, wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

“He miscalculated. To our common enemies, he is still Russian — unpredictable and dangerous, of different blood.”