Who is Pavel Durov, the Russian-born Telegram founder detained in France?

Here’s what to know about Durov, Telegram and its latest troubles.

Who is Pavel Durov?

Durov was born in 1984 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, Russia. His family moved to Italy when he was 4, he told Tucker Carlson in a rare interview this year. He did well in school, Durov said, adding that he felt he became part European.

Durov’s family moved back to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when his father got an offer to run a department at St. Petersburg State University, he told Carlson. He and his brother excelled in math, coding and design, and by the time he was in college, he was creating websites, Durov said.

He was dubbed the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg” following the success of his social media company VKontakte, or VK — which served as the Russian answer to Facebook — but ran afoul of the Russian government when he refused to shut down opposition accounts in 2011 and hand over personal data of Ukrainian pro-democracy protesters in 2014, he said. “I had to make a difficult decision,” Durov told Carlson, adding that he could have either caved in to the demands or resigned from the company and left Russia. “I chose the latter,” he said.

Durov said he ultimately settled in Dubai for its ease of doing business, describing it as a “neutral place” geopolitically. Durov is a dual citizen of the United Arab Emirates and France, according to Telegram. It’s not clear whether he renounced his Russian citizenship.

In late July, a message posted on Durov’s official Telegram channel claimed that he had fathered 100 children after donating sperm to a fertility clinic 15 years ago. “The shortage of healthy sperm has become an increasingly serious issue worldwide, and I’m proud that I did my part to help alleviate it,” the message said.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is a messaging app that lets users create channels to broadcast to large audiences. The company has touted its focus on encryption and claims to be faster and more secure than other platforms. “On top of that, private messaging on Telegram is free and will stay free — no ads, no subscription fees, forever,” Telegram says on its website.

But some experts point to misunderstandings over Telegram’s encryption services. “Telegram is often seen as an ‘encrypted messenger,’ but for many users, it functions a lot more like an unencrypted social network,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, wrote on X. Most features on Telegram, including chats and groups, are not end-to-end-encrypted, he said, until users opt for the encryption.

The platform has said that it has never disclosed any user data to third parties, including governments.

In 2020, when Telegram hit the 500-million-user milestone, Durov promised that he would not sell the platform like the founders of WhatsApp had and would aim to generate revenue through ads or offerings for premium users.

The app’s lightly moderated messaging services have provided a platform for groups posting content that might be banned on other major social media networks, from right-wing groups to organized crime figures and militant organizations. Telegram is also popular with criminal syndicates and terrorist groups because of its encrypted messaging, which makes it hard for law enforcement authorities to monitor illegal activities.

Telegram was once a popular messaging platform for proscribed militant groups such as the Islamic State. Experts said this was due in part to its refusal to adopt the same aggressive measures used by competitors to ban such groups from their platforms. After the Islamic State’s 2015 Paris attacks, however, Telegram moved to shut down channels associated with the group.

An investigation by The Washington Post and its media partners published this year found a network of Telegram users who shared footage of child pornography and abuse or tips on how to manipulate children. Telegram did not respond to questions about that network but said it removes “millions” of pieces of harmful content each day and shut down dozens of groups identified as communication hubs for the network.

In Germany, Telegram has run into trouble for extremist far-right content related to anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and antisemitism. In Russia, authorities pressured Telegram in 2018 to provide decryption keys amid a crackdown on freedom of expression online.

Why was Durov detained in France?

French TV channel TF1 reported Saturday night that the billionaire was detained by authorities at Bourget Airport outside Paris as he was traveling back from Azerbaijan aboard a private jet.

The French Interior and Justice ministries did not respond to requests for comment, and Paris authorities said a statement regarding Durov’s detention will be issued Monday.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that authorities detained Durov as part of a preliminary investigation that focused on the lack of content moderation on Telegram and the platform’s role in allegedly enabling criminal activity. The probe is looking at Telegram’s failure to cooperate with law enforcement on issues including child pornography, cyberscams and organized crime, the newspaper said.

Telegram said Sunday that the company abides by applicable laws in the European Union and maintains content moderation practices that are aligned with “industry standards.”

“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” the company said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

Mary Ilyushina and Rachel Pannett contributed to this report.