Telegram assured on Sunday evening that its boss, the Franco-Russian billionaire Pavel Durov, “has nothing to hide”, after his arrest the day before near Paris for various violations of his encrypted messaging service.
“Telegram complies with European laws, including the Digital Services Regulation, and its moderation is in line with industry standards,” the Dubai-based company said on its own channel. “Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels to Europe frequently,” Telegram added. “It is absurd to say that a platform or its boss is responsible for the abuses” found on the platform.
The online messaging service launched in 2013 by Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai, on which communications can be encrypted from end to end and whose head office is in Dubai, has positioned itself against the grain of American platforms, criticized for their commercial exploitation of personal data.
Telegram has notably committed to never revealing information about its users.
Pavel Durov’s police custody was extended on Sunday evening, the day after his arrest at a Paris airport, after a search warrant was issued against him by French investigators targeting various violations of his encrypted messaging.
Accompanied by his bodyguard and his assistant who follow him constantly, the 39-year-old Franco-Russian billionaire was arrested Saturday evening in the Bourget airport terminal, north of Paris. The founder of Telegram was arriving from Baku and was due to spend at least the evening in Paris where he had planned to have dinner, added a source close to the investigation.
According to another source close to the investigation, the Paris investigating judge in charge of this judicial investigation, which particularly targets acts committed by an organized gang, extended his police custody on Sunday evening. It could last a maximum of 96 hours.
At the end of this, Pavel Durov could be released or presented to this magistrate with a view to a possible indictment (charge).
The Office for Combating Violence against Minors (Ofmin) had issued a search warrant against Pavel Durov for offences ranging from fraud to drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime, advocacy of terrorism and fraud.
Also read: Who is Pavel Durov, the enigmatic boss of Telegram arrested in Paris?
