Telegram clarified on Pavel Durov's arrest, said - he has nothing to hide

Now his company Telegram has clarified on the arrest of Pavel Durov in France. The messaging app says that CEO Durov has nothing to hide. Also, claiming that its owner is responsible for the misuse of the platform is very absurd.

According to media reports, officials of the French Anti-Fraud Office attached to French Customs arrested Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, on Saturday evening. A French arrest warrant was issued against 39-year-old Durov due to a lack of moderation on Telegram. The platform is alleged to have been used to allegedly share money laundering, drug trafficking, and pedophile content.

The first of the reactions from Telegram came on Monday after the arrest of the French-Russian billionaire at Paris' Bourget airport. It stated that the company complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act.

The platform, which boasts over 900 million active users, said: "The Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, has nothing to hide. He actually often travels to Europe. About 1 billion users worldwide use Telegram as a means of communication and a source of important information. We look forward to a speedy resolution of this situation."

The company further said, "Telegram complies with EU law, including the Digital Services Act. Its moderation is within industry standards and continues to improve."

Telegram is a messaging app, created and owned by Russian-born 39-year-old Durov. So far, it has been a free app in competition with other outlets devised by Facebook, which includes WhatsApp, Instagram, Tiktok, and WeChat. The social media phenomenon is looking for upwards of one billion active users a month.

And what about Telegram: the Russian and Ukrainian app, most widely used in former Soviet republics that has become a key source of news about the Russia-Ukraine war - used by both Moscow and Kyiv officials? To some analysts, the app has become the virtual battleground for the war.

Durov, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $15.5 billion, fled Russia in 2014 after the RKN demanded that VKontakte provide user data to Russian law enforcement. Shortly afterward, Russia also attempted to block Telegram.

Durov relocated to Dubai, much earlier in 2017, then accepted French citizenship this year in August. In April, when he spoke to an American journalist about deciding to leave Russia and find a place for his company, he told that person, "I would prefer to be independent rather than take orders from anyone." It's around this time that he worked in Berlin, London, Singapore, and San Francisco.

In the same interview, Durov said that besides money and bitcoins, he does not own any major assets, such as real estate, a jet, or a yacht because he wanted to remain free.