Telegram founder Durov allowed to leave France following arrest
Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the social messaging app Telegraph, was allowed to fly to Dubai as French authorities continued to conduct unprecedented cases against him.
Technology Billionaire Arrested in August accused of failing to properly adjust his application to reduce criminality.
Mr. Durov denied his failure to cooperate with law enforcement on drug trafficking, child sexual abuse content and fraud. The Telegram previously denied that moderation was insufficient.
This is the first time a technology leader has been arrested for crimes committed on his platform.
“This process is underway, but it feels great to go home,” Mr. Durov said in an article on the Telegram channel.
The 40-year-old arrived in Paris on a private jet in August 2024, and a French judge initially refused to allow him to leave France.
But the French court said in a statement on Monday that the “obligation of judicial oversight” was suspended between March 15 and April 7.
There are no further details about the conditions for his release from France.
Mr. Durov, who lives in Dubai and was born in Russia, has citizenship, as well as the countries of France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island countries of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Telegrams are particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet states, as well as in Iran.
Telegram, which is used by approximately 950 million people worldwide, has previously positioned itself as a focus on user privacy rather than a regular policy prioritized by other global social media companies.
However, reports from the BBC and other news organizations highlight criminals who use the app to promote drugs and provide cybercrime and fraud services and more recently, child sexual abuse materials.
It caused an expert to brand it”Dark network in your pocket”.
The company has previously stated that his arrest is unfair and that he should not be held responsible for what users do on the platform.
Mr. Durov thanked the French judge for letting him go home at his home in Dubai.
He also thanked his lawyer for “relatively working to demonstrate that in terms of moderation, cooperation and combating crime, the telegraph not only meets but exceeds its legal obligations”.
However, since the arrest, the Telegram has made a series of changes to how it works.
It joins the Internet Watch Foundation Link program, which is designed to help find, delete and report child sexual abuse material shared online.
It also announced the IP addresses and phone numbers of people who violated their rules in response to valid legal requests, handing them over to police.
It has published transparency reports on how much content is removed – a standard industry practice it previously refused to comply with.
