A case was opened last month to investigate child pornography, drug sales, fraud and other criminal activities on the platform. The app’s founder, Pavel Durov, was detained over the weekend near Paris. Prosecutors in France said on Monday that Pavel Durov, the entrepreneur who runs the Telegram messaging platform, had been arrested in connection with an investigation opened last month into criminal activity on the app and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Mr. Durov, 39, was detained on Saturday at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on a private plane from Azerbaijan. He has not been charged and remains in custody, which can be extended through Wednesday, according to prosecutors. Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said in a statement that the arrest was part of an investigation opened on July 8 “against person unnamed” on a raft of potential charges, including complicity in the distribution of child pornography and selling of drugs, money laundering, and a refusal to cooperate with law enforcement. The investigation is being handled by cybercrime and anti-fraud specialists, Ms. Beccuau said. “It is within this procedural framework that Pavel Durov was questioned by the investigators,” she said. (…) Telegram has more than 900 million users, with growth driven partly by a commitment to free speech. Telegram’s light oversight over content on the platform has helped people living under authoritarian governments communicate, but it has also made the app a haven for harmful content. Telegram works as a standard messaging app, but also hosts channels and groups in which large numbers of people can broadcast ideas and communicate, with minimal moderation. Telegram has long been on the radar of law enforcement agencies because terrorist organizations, drug sellers, weapons dealers and far-right extremist groups have used it for communicating, recruiting and organizing.
via nytimes: Telegram Founder’s Arrest Part of Broad Investigation, French Prosecutors Say
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