Factbox: Who is Pavel Durov, CEO of messaging app Telegram?

Television Francaise 1 SA

25/08/2024 03:33

(Adds Durov's citizenship information, detail)
       Aug 25 (Reuters) - Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and
CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at the Bourget
airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV and BFM TV
said, citing unidentified sources.
    TF1 and BFM both said the investigation was focused on a
lack of moderators on Telegram, and that police considered that
this situation allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on
the messaging app.
    Telegram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request
for comment. The French Interior Ministry and police had no
comment. Russia, which has in the past tried to ban Telegram,
said it was taking steps to "clarify" Durov's situation.
        
  
    What is known about Durov and Telegram:
    
    * Russian-born Durov, 39, is founder and owner of messaging
app Telegram, a free to use platform that competes with other
social media platforms such as Facebook's WhatsApp, or
Instagram, TikTok and Wechat. The platform aims to surpass one
billion active monthly users within a year. 
    * Telegram is influential in Russia, Ukraine and the
republics of the former Soviet Union. It has become a critical
source of information on Russia's war in Ukraine, used heavily
by both Moscow and Kyiv officials. Some analysts call the app "a
virtual battlefield" for the war. 
    * Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5
billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with
government demands to shut down opposition communities on his
VKontakte social media platform, which he sold.
    * Durov became a French citizen in August 2021. He moved
himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017, and according to French
media he has also received United Arab Emirates citizenship. He
is also a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis, a dual-island nation
in the Caribbean, according to media reports. 
        * Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app
refused to comply with a court order to grant state security
services access to its users' encrypted messages. The action had
little effect on the availability of Telegram there, but it
sparked mass protests in Moscow and criticism from NGOs.
    *  Telegram's increasing popularity, however, has prompted
scrutiny from several countries in Europe, including France, on
security and data breach concerns. In May, the EU tech
regulators said they were in touch with Telegram as it neared a
key usage criterion that could see it subject to more stringent
requirements under a landmark EU online content legislation. 
     * "I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone,"
Durov told U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his
exit from Russia and search for a home for his company which
included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
 

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Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France, French
media say     ID:nL1N3KB07D 
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 (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Additional reporting by
Camille Raynoud in Toronto; Editing by David Gregorio and Kim
COghill)
 ((lidia.kelly@thomsonreuters.com;))