The case of Pavel Durov became famous when he was arrested at a French airport on Saturday evening. On Wednesday, the man he was charged with 12 counts.
This includes participating in the administration of the Telegram internet platform in order to enable illegal transactions by an organized criminal groupparticipation in the distribution of images of minors depicting child pornography or drug trafficking by an organized group.
The Paris prosecutor's office announced that Durov was released from custody after paying a deposit of 5 million eurosThe man was taken into custody court supervisionthe obligation to report to the police station twice a week and a ban on leaving the territory France.
Pavel Durov arrested. He is the creator of Telegram
The CEO of one of the world's most popular messengers has been arrested Saturday evening in Parisjust after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport. He was accompanied by Julia Vavilova, who was also detained. The couple was returning to France z Azerbaijan.
An arrest warrant was issued in connection with serious allegations related to the platform managed by DurovThe investigation concerns the lack of proper moderation of content published on Telegram and the refusal to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. This includes trading in prohibited substances through the messenger, distributing content involving minors, and fraud.
According to officials, Durov did not make enough effort to to limit criminal activities on Telegram.
Who is Pavel Durov?
Pavel Durov, now 39, has dual citizenship: France and the United Arab Emirates. He left Russia in 2014, after he refused to cooperate with the local government and closed the profiles of opposition representatives on the second platform he ran at the time, VKontakte. The businessman moved his business to Dubaiwhere he also settled. “I'd rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Durov said in April, as quoted by Reuters.
The “Russian Mark Zuckerberg,” as some call him, founded Telegram in 2013 with his brother Nikolai. Five years later the Russian government has blocked the use of the messenger in the country. However, the ban was lifted three years later.
Telegram, whose value is calculated by Bloomberg's Billionaire Index on $9.15 billion brings together approx. 900 million users around the world. In many countries, it is the main tool for online communication, from chat conversations to the publication of government statements.
Critics of the platform accuse its representatives of pursuing policies that encourage the spread of harmful and criminal content on the Internet. This includes disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate speech.
The platform is especially popular in Russia, Ukraine, IranWhether India. Western media outlets point out that it is favored by white supremacists and terrorist groups, including ISIS. They also claim that the system for moderating extremist content is much weaker than other social networking sites.
Source: “The World”, Reuters
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