French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged Monday that authorities had arrested the founder and CEO of the widely used messaging app Telegram, saying it was “not a political decision at all” and that Pavel Durov’s fate was in the hands of France’s independent judicial authorities. French media said Durov was detained Saturday over Telegram’s alleged failure to moderate criminal activity on the platform, which has also been used by pro-democracy activists worldwide.
French police did not immediately confirm Durov’s arrest, which was reportedly carried out at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris, but in his own Monday post on social media platform X, Macron said he was “reading false information here” about the detention.
Macron said France remained committed to the tenets of “freedom of expression and communication, to innovation and entrepreneurship,” but added that “freedoms are exercised within a framework established by law to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.”
“It is up to the justice system, in total independence, to enforce the law. The arrest of the president of Telegram on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” Macron said. “This is not a political decision at all. It is up to the judges to decide.”
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In a statement issued later Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s office also confirmed Durov’s arrest and said the case had been referred “to the Centre for the Fight against Digital Crime (C3N) and the National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF) for the continuation of the investigations.”
The prosecutor’s office said Durov’s detention was extended on Monday for up to 96 hours, meaning he could remain in custody until at least Wednesday for questioning.
The statement confirmed that the tech CEO he was detained as part of an investigation into alleged complicity in a wide range of cybercrimes, including links to organized crime and the transfer and creation of imagery of child sexual abuse and of narcotics.
Durov, thought to be worth more than $15 billion, was reportedly detained shortly after touching down in his private jet at the Le Bourget airport.
Macron did not offer any detail of the ongoing investigation, but it comes after years of criticism that Telegram has allowed anyone, including those linked to organized crime, terrorism and far-right extremism, to use the app without scrutiny. Communications via the app are encrypted, meaning governments cannot censor or regulate what is said or shared on it.
Asked about ISIS members’ use of Telegram in the wake of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, and whether law enforcement should be allowed a backdoor into the app, Durov defended the platform, saying: “The interesting thing about encryption is it cannot be secure just for some people.”
Telegram said in a statement that it abides by EU laws, including the 2022 Digital Services Act that seeks to stop the flow of disinformation online, adding that “its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”
The company said Durov “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe” and called it “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams said she could personally attest to the wide use of Telegram during the war in Ukraine, which she has covered extensively. She said the app was relied on heavily by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and by journalists reporting from the front lines since Russia launched its ongoing full-scale invasion in February 2022.
It has also been used as a vital tool by pro-democracy protesters in Russia, as well as Hong Kong and Iran.
Durov was born in Russia but left the country in 2014, after refusing to shut down anti-government content on a previous app that he launched.
