Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been charged with complicity in running an online platform that allegedly enabled the dissemination of sexual images of children and has been banned from leaving French territory, leaving the future of the messaging app, which has become one of the world’s largest social media platforms, uncertain.
Durov was arrested at 8pm local time on Saturday after landing at an airport near Paris on a private jet. He was then held for four days as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity on Telegram. On Wednesday evening local time, he was charged and banned from leaving the country, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was released under judicial supervision, paid 5 million euros ($5.5 million) bail and must report to a French police station twice a week, according to the statement.
Paris prosecutor Laure Vecuot said on Wednesday that Telegram’s founder was under formal investigation on a range of charges related to child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, importing encryption technology without prior declaration and an “almost complete lack of cooperation” with French authorities.
French authorities noted that “Telegram barely responded to legal requests,” Becquod said. “This prompted JUNALCO (the National Judicial Agency for Combating Organized Crime) to open an investigation into the criminal liability of the messaging service’s executives for the possible commission of these crimes,” he said. A preliminary investigation began in February 2024, and the initial investigation was coordinated by OFMIN, an agency set up to prevent violence against minors, his statement added.
“It is absurd to claim that the platform or its owners are responsible for the misuse of its platform,” Telegram said on Sunday, before Durov was indicted. The platform, which has 900 million active users, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the indictment.
Since his arrest, both the UAE and Russia have requested consular access for Durov, who holds both nationalities. It is unclear why Durov was in France, as he also obtained a French passport after leaving Russia. “I don’t take holidays,” he said on his Telegram channel in June.
Russia has alleged, without evidence, that Durov’s arrest is an attempt by the US to exert influence over Telegram through France. “Telegram is one of the few and largest internet platforms over which the US has no influence,” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian State Duma, said on the app.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that Durov’s detention was “never a political decision.” “A fully independent judiciary is responsible for enforcing the law,” Macron added in a post on X. The European Commission told WIRED that the arrest was made under French criminal code and is not related to new European regulations on tech platforms. “We are closely monitoring developments regarding Telegram and are ready to cooperate with the French authorities if they are relevant,” a spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
