Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was detained over the weekend while exiting his private jet at France's Le Bourget Airport, French television network TF1 first reported.

Durov's arrest has been hotly discussed and speculated upon across social media, even on Telegram, though the majority of news reports remain based on unnamed police sources. Telegram said in a statement it is "awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation."

A French national anti-fraud office spokesman did not return a request for comment. Russia's embassy in France said it had requested clarification, but had not received a response from French officials.

As per TF1, Durov was targeted with a warrant in France on the basis of a preliminary police investigation. The French reportedly argue that because Telegram does not moderate content and is unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement, Durov shares responsibility for drug trafficking, money laundering, and the sharing of child pornography, which the authorities believe is taking place on the app.

This will likely further incense debates over the amount to which messaging apps should take responsibility for the messages posted on them.

Telegram "adheres to the rules set by the laws of the EU, which also includes the Digital Services Act" and is operated under "moderation within standard industrial benchmarks and continually under development." It further opined that it is absurd "to consider a platform and/or owner responsible for how they have been abused.".

⚖️ In fact, Telegram complies with the laws of the European Union, including the recently adopted Digital Services Act—its moderation is in compliance with the industry's practices and constantly improving.

✈️ The owner and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, isn't hiding anything, frequenting Europe.

????‍???? It sounds absurd that a platform and its owner…

Forbes estimates Durov's net worth at $15.5 billion. Born in Russia, he left the country in 2014 after resisting government pressure to release data about Ukrainian protest leaders from his previous social network VKontakte. Durov now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and his plane was reportedly flying in from Azerbaijan.

The post also pointed out that Durov mentioned that Telegram now reaches 950 million active users, with the aim of growing to 1 billion for this year, but an organisation claims it has about as few as 30 engineers. This size means the company Durov needs to have been even much more essential to the firm's operations.
The current updated post carries more additional quotes from Telegram and even from the Russian embassy of France.