Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris while traveling on his private jet.
According to reports from French network TF1, he was wanted in France for an investigation into a lack of moderation on Telegram, which authorities believe allowed criminal activities to continue on the platform.
Neither Telegram representatives nor the French authorities immediately commented on the situation.
Durov, whose net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VK, and subsequently sold the platform.
He stated that Telegram should remain a neutral platform and resist various government constraints.
According to Durov, Telegram blocks accounts and chatbots that collect data to support strikes or call for violence.
The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, said in March that Telegram posed risks because “anyone can create a channel and write whatever they want on it.” However, Telegram also offered certain advantages, for example when communicating with people from the occupied territories.
Ukrainian hackers launch large-scale cyberattack on Russian Internet providers and military-affiliated companies, a source says
The latest attack affected at least 33 servers and 283 office computers in industrial facilities, brought down 21 websites and destroyed 15 cloud and file storage sites.
