French authorities reportedly arrest Telegram founder Pavel Durov

According to French television network TF1, Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was taken into custody on Saturday night as he was stepping out of his private jet at the airport in Bourget, France. On social media, particularly Telegram, stories of Durov's arrest generated a lot of debate and conjecture; however, it appears that most of these were based on the same few reports in French media. When contacted for comment, Telegram and a representative of ONAF, France's national anti-fraud bureau, did not immediately answer.

Durov was the subject of a warrant in France, according to TF1, following an initial police inquiry. The French authorities purport to have evidence that Durov is complicit in drug trafficking, money laundering, and the distribution of child pornography that take place on Telegram due to the platform's lack of content control and refusal to work with law enforcement. The alleged arrest will probably lead to more discussion about how much messaging apps should be held accountable for the messages its users post, both legally and otherwise. Durov's net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $15.5 billion. Despite being born in Russia, he fled the nation in 2014 when he refused to comply with government demands to disclose information about Ukrainian protest leaders that he had stored on his old social network, Vkontakte.

Durov apparently flew in from Azerbaijan on his plane, and he currently resides in Dubai, the home of Telegram. With 950 million active users as of last month, Telegram aims to achieve one billion users this year, according to Durov. Durov is probably even more crucial to the functioning of the business given that the company claims to only have about 30 programmers, which is a relatively tiny staff for an app the size of Telegram.