POLITICS | Telegram Founder Arrested in France Over Lack of Moderation on the App

Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France after his private jet had landed at Le Bourget Airport on the evening of August 24 2024, Reuters reported.

According to officials, the 39-year-old billionaire was arrested under a warrant for offences related to the popular messaging app.

The investigation is reportedly about a lack of moderators, with Mr Durov accused of failing to take steps to curb criminal uses of Telegram. He allegedly faces charges of terrorism, trafficking, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and more.

According to French commercial television network, TF1, this search warrant ran if, and only if, Pavel Durov was on national territory. It further claimed that Durov didn’t travel within Europe often and avoided countries ‘where Telegram is under surveillance.‘

Durov has slowly built one of the most popular social platforms in the world reaching nearly 1 billion users in 2024.

The app, notably popular in Russia, Ukraine, and former Soviet Union states was banned in Russia in 2018 after a previous refusal by Mr Durov to hand over user data. But the ban was reversed in 2021.

Telegram is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat. The company is highly innovative and has linked the social platform to the TON Blockchain enabling tons of additional use cases.

Telegram has been touted as one of the best chat services for privacy, preventing snooping by governmental authorities. Free speech adherents such as Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk see this as the reason behind his arrest earlier today.

“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,” Fox news television host, Tucker Carlson, told his 13.6 million X followers on an August.24 2025 post.

X owner, Elon Musk, who has faced extensive criticism over moderation and material hosted by his own social media site, posted repeatedly about the situation. He hashtagged one post #freepavel, and in another wrote:

“POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.”

In April 2024, American investor, David Sacks, denounced a U.S. law that would ban the video-sharing platform TikTok if its China-based developer ByteDance refused to sell it within 12 months. At the time, the investor suggested that after the crackdown on TikTok, Telegram, X and the video platform, Rumble, could end up in Washington’s crosshairs.

In an interview with conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson which was released several months ago, Durov recalled that he had been getting ‘too much attention’ from US law enforcement agencies while he was in the country. He said that while he was not under any legal scrutiny, he had to regularly deal with U.S. authorities eager to get more insight into how Telegram worked.