Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been banned from leaving French territory after being charged with complicity in running an online platform that allegedly facilitated the distribution of sexual images of children, casting doubt on the future of the messaging app that has grown to become one of the world’s largest social media platforms.
Durov was arrested at 8 p.m. local time on Saturday after his private jet landed at an airport near Paris. He was subsequently held for four days as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity that took place 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, the statement said, and must post €5 million ($5.5 million) bail and report to a police station in France twice a week.
The Telegram founder is being formally investigated on a series of charges relating to child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, importing cryptography without prior declaration, as well as an “almost total absence” of cooperation with French authorities, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Wednesday.
French authorities noted that there was “almost no response from Telegram to legal requests,” Beccuau noted. “This is what prompted JUNALCO to [the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime] to open an investigation into the possible criminal liability of the executives of this messaging service in the commission of these crimes,” she said. The preliminary investigation began in February 2024 and the first investigations were coordinated by the OFMIN, an agency created to prevent violence against minors, her statement added.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform,” Telegram said Sunday, before Durov was charged. The platform, which has 900 million active users, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.
Since his arrest, both the UAE and Russia have requested consular access for Durov, who is a citizen of both countries. It is unclear why Durov, who also received a French passport after leaving Russia, was in France. “I don't take vacations,” he said on his Telegram channel in June.
Russia has claimed, without evidence, that Durov's arrest is an attempt by the United States to exert influence on the platform through France. “Telegram is one of the few and at the same time the largest internet platforms where the United States has no influence,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said on the app.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that Durov’s arrest “is in no way a political decision.” “It is up to the judiciary, in complete independence, to enforce the law,” he added in a message on X. The European Commission tells WIRED that the arrest was carried out under French criminal law and is not connected to new EU regulations on tech platforms. “We are closely following the developments regarding Telegram and stand ready to cooperate with the French authorities if relevant,” said a spokesperson, who asked not to be named.
