(Reuters) – Pavel Durov, billionaire creator and chief government officer of the Telegram messaging software, was detained on the Bourget airport terminal outdoors Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 tv and BFM tv said, mentioning unrevealed sources.
TF1 and BFM each said the examination was focused on an absence of mediators on Telegram, which cops took into consideration that this situation enabled felony process to happen undeterred on the messaging software.
Telegram didn’t immediately reply to a Reuters ask for comment. The French Interior Ministry and cops had no comment. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was taking actions to “clarify” the situation and examined whether or not Western non-governmental corporations (NGOs) would definitely search his launch.
What is discovered about Durov and Telegram:
* Russian- birthed Durov, 39, is creator and proprietor of messaging software Telegram, a cost-free to utilize system that takes on varied different social networks techniques corresponding to Facebook’s What sApp, or Instagram, TikTok andWechat The system intends to transcend one billion energetic month-to-month people inside a 12 months.
* Telegram is outstanding in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the previousSoviet Union It has really come to be a necessary useful resource of particulars on Russia’s battle in Ukraine, utilized vastly by each Moscow and Kyiv authorities. Some consultants name the applying “a virtual battlefield” for the battle.
* Durov, whose ton of cash was approximated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after rejecting to observe federal authorities wants to shut down resistance areas on his VKontakte social networks system, which he marketed.
* Russian and French media declare Durov ended up being a French individual in 2021. He relocated himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017.
* “I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone,” Durov knowledgeable united state reporter Tucker Carlson in April relating to his departure from Russia and search for a house for his enterprise that included jobs in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
* In the very same assembly, Durov said that, previous money or Bitcoin, he had no vital constructing corresponding to realty, jets or personal yachts, as he meant to be completely free.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by David Gregorio)
