Telegram CEO arrested in France, company calls it "absurd"

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avel Durov, CEO of Telegram , who was arrested in France on Saturday, is still being questioned by authorities in the neighbouring country and his release is not currently being considered. The Parisian judge in charge of Durov's case decided on Sunday that the CEO of Telegram should remain in police custody for now, according to people close to the investigation.

Durov's detention can be extended for up to 96 hours. Once this period has expired, the judge will have to decide whether to release Durov or instead open a full investigation against him.

Durov, 39, was arrested on Saturday evening at Le Bourget airport near Paris. The Russian billionaire had apparently travelled to the French capital on his private jet from Azerbaijan accompanied by a woman and a bodyguard. French authorities arrested Durov as soon as he set foot on French soil at around 8pm on Saturday, citing an ongoing police investigation into him.

According to French media, the investigation against Durov is focused on Telegram's lack of content moderation. In addition, the popular instant messaging service has not been willing to cooperate with law enforcement, who accuse Telegram of allowing illegal activities and of not putting any kind of stop to them thanks to the app's lax content moderation policy.

The investigation against Durov focuses on Telegram's lax content moderation policy
Telegram said on Sunday that Durov had “nothing to hide.” The CEO of Telegram, who has dual Russian and French nationality, “frequently travels to Europe,” the company said. Telegram claims that it complies with current legislation in force on the old continent and that the content moderation applied on the platform is “standard in the industry.” According to the famous instant messaging application, it is “absurd” to hold Telegram and its CEO responsible for “the misuse of the platform.”

Since its launch in 2013, Telegram, whose messages are end-to-end encrypted, has established itself as a powerful alternative to similar services from the United States . Unlike its rivals, Telegram steadfastly refuses t armenia whatsapp list o hand over user data to authorities, even when there is suspicion that users have been involved in criminal activities.

Telegram has around 900 million users across the globe , making it one of the largest online platforms in the world. EU countries have repeatedly accused the company of failing to respond adequately to criminal activities carried out on its platform.

In March of this year, the judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, ordered the precautionary suspension of Telegram in Spain at the request of several audiovisual groups that accused the platform of hosting pirated series and films. The magistrate, however, rectified shortly afterwards and revoked this precautionary measure, considering it "excessive" and "not proportional." Telegram has approximately 18 million users in Spain.

Unlike Telegram, WhatsApp did agree to introduce restrictions on the dissemination of messages on its domains in 2019. Meta's app had previously been accused of spreading false information that had ultimately resulted in a series of lynchings in India.

In the last few hours, Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), has spoken out against the controversial arrest of Durov. In a post published on X, the South African businessman has stated that we live in “dangerous times” and has described as “vital for the defense of freedom of expression” that posts from the social network formerly known as Twitter be forwarded, “particularly in countries with a lot of censorship.”