France extends Pavel Durov's detention and Telegram reacts to its founder's arrest: 'He has nothing to hide'

French judicial authorities prolonged the detention of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Sunday night, the day after he was arrested at a Paris airport for offenses related to the popular messaging service.

Accompanied by his bodyguard and assistant, the 39-year-old French-Russian billionaire was detained Saturday night at Le Bourget airport, north of the capital, a source close to the case told AFP.

A source close to the investigation added that the Telegram founder was arriving from Baku, Azerbaijan, and was due to spend at least the night in Paris, where he had a dinner planned.

According to another source close to the case, the investigating judge in charge of this judicial inquiry on Sunday night extended his pre-trial detention, which can last up to 96 hours at most. 

Afterward, Pavel Durov can be released or brought before this judge to determine a possible indictment.

France's Agency for the Prevention of Violence against Minors, OFMIN, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov as part of a preliminary investigation into several crimes, including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and promotion of terrorism, one of the sources said.

Durov is suspected of failing to take action to prevent the use of the Telegram platform for criminal purposes.

In a statement Sunday night, Telegram stated that its CEO “has nothing to hide and travels regularly throughout Europe.”

"Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act—its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving," the Dubai-based company said in a statement through the app.

"It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse," it added.

France "refuses to cooperate"

"Enough of Telegram's impunity," said an investigator on the case, who noted that they were surprised by Durov's arrival in Paris knowing he had a warrant.

Russia accused France of "refusing to cooperate." Russian officials noted that they had requested access to Durov but got no response from France.

"We immediately asked the French authorities to explain the reasons for this detention and demanded that his rights be protected and consular access be granted. So far, the French side refuses to cooperate on this issue," the Russian embassy in Paris said in a statement released by the Ria Novosti news agency.

Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova reported that Moscow had asked for consular access to Durov, but since he also has French nationality, "France considers it to be his primary nationality."

Reactions against the arrest

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social network X, posted the hashtag #FreePavel (#PavelFree) and commented in French "Liberté Liberté! Liberté Liberté?" (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).

Telegram positioned itself as an alternative to U.S. messaging platforms criticized for commercially exploiting users' personal data.

The encrypted messaging app pledged never to reveal information about its users.

In an April interview with U.S. host Tucker Carlson, Durov said he got the idea to launch an encrypted messaging app after receiving pressure from the Russian government while working on VK, a social network he created, before selling it and leaving Russia in 2014.

The entrepreneur, who set up the app's headquarters in Dubai, praising the city's "neutrality," told Carlson that people "love independence. They also love the privacy, the freedom, (there are) many reasons why someone would switch to Telegram."

Durov then claimed the app had more than 900 million active users. Carlson was one of the prominent voices defending Telegram's CEO.

"Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away. Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world."

Being based in the United Arab Emirates, Telegram has been shielded from Western moderation laws. This has occurred against a backdrop of increasing pressure from Western countries for major platforms to implement stricter moderation measures, which, in many cases, could result in censorship or the restriction of free speech.

Telegram allows groups of up to 200,000 members, which has led to accusations that it facilitates the viral spread of false information and allows users to spread problematic content related to extremist ideologies or even sex crimes.

Competing messaging service, WhatsApp introduced global limits on message forwarding in 2019 after it was accused of allowing the spread of false information in India that led to lynchings.