Billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested at French airport

• Telegram founder arrested by French authorities at airport on his way back from Azerbaijan
• The founder is wanted for not cooperating with law enforcement and alleged complicity with illicit activities taking place on the messaging application

Telegram Founder and CEO – Pavel Durov was arrested by authorities at an airport in France. A translated report by TFI Info stated that the founder was arrested at Le Bourget airport, Paris, on his way back from Azerbaijan. He was accompanied by a woman and his bodyguards.

Notably, the CEO had an arrest warrant issued against him by the national directorate of the French judicial police – the OFMIN. And, the crux was the warrant was the lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Along with this, the CEO is also alleged of complicity in sex offences, fraud, and drug trafficking.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Durov has been found in cross roads with law enforcement officials. The Telegram CEO had made headlines for not cooperating with Russian authorities over his earlier founder application – VK, a Russian social media and networking service. The founder had refused to censor content and provide the government information regarding its users, which ultimately resulting in him leaving the firm.

While Telegram has come under the radar for being used for illicit activities, the social messaging app has also played a key role in ensuring freedom of speech and expression. The messaging application was especially in the highlight during the Hong Kong protest on the Anti-extradition bill in 2021. The app allowed protesters to coordinate their protests without facing government scrutiny.

Telegram’s crypto takes hit as a result

TONCOIN (TON) has reacted strongly to the arrest of the social media founder. The coin has lost over 10% of its value in just one hour, trading at $5.98 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap. The past day chart recorded a loss on similar lines, while the 7-day chart had recorded a loss of over 7%. The market cap of the coin was over $15 billion, while the trade volume was around $695 million.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Regarding the arrest, Chart Simpson – an X user said,

“If Pavel Durov got arrested under the assumption that bad actors use Telegram to harm people, why don’t the CEO’s of tobacco and gun companies also get arrested? Becoming very scary how governments want to blatantly intervene with free speech.”

Meanwhile, Dacadey – a Reddit user expressed,

“That is a very stupid argument. That’s like accusing utensils stores of being accomplices in homicides because they sell kitchen knives. And especially the “lack of cooperation with law enforcement” – yeah, we get it that you would love to have backdoors in all messengers and spy on your citizens 24/7.”

Story is still developing.