Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested in France

Author: Dian Kencana
August 25, 2024

Pavel Durov was arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday (8/24) evening. (Reuters)

SEAToday.com, Paris - Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was reportedly arrested and detained by French security authorities near Paris on Saturday evening (8/24) as he was about to exit his private jet at Le Bourget Airport.

He was arrested after arriving from Azerbaijan and his arrest was made by local authorities after OFMIN authorized security authorities issued a search warrant to Pavel.

Pavel is considered by French security authorities to be negligent and did not pay attention to the moderation of the platform on his service which allows criminal activity to continue to be affected on the messaging application.

This news came from local French media, TF1 TV, which reported this news on Sunday (8/25) morning. The report also said Pavel Durov will be brought before a judge tonight and could be charged in the case.

Telegram has become a global messaging platform that many people turn to in times of information censorship from a country.

But Durov's preference to forgo content moderation has also made the service a haven for bad actors, with the platform only controlling its content when forced to do so by governments and other organizations.

In the Indonesian context, Telegram was blocked for non-compliance in 2017. This was because Telegram opened its platform to many parties and did not moderate its content and found a lot of radicalism and terrorism content.

After that, Telegram's CEO visited Indonesia and the service was finally put back into operation.

In mid-2024, Telegram received another warning letter and reprimand because of the online gambling content found, which is currently being intensively eradicated by the government.