Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Charged Over Alleged Criminal Activity on the App

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is forbidden from leaving French territory after being charged for complicity in running an online platform that allegedly enabled the spread of sexual images of children, creating an uncertain future for the messaging app that has become one of the world’s biggest social media platforms.

Durov was arrested on Saturday at 8 pm local time after his private jet landed at an airport near Paris. He was then detained for four days as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity taking place on Telegram. On Wednesday evening, local time, he was indicted and forbidden from leaving the country, according to a statement released by the Paris Prosecutor. He was released under judicial supervision, the statement said, and must post a €5 million ($5.5 million) bail and report to a police station in France twice a week.

The Telegram founder was placed under formal investigation for a range of charges related to child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, importing cryptology without prior declaration, as well as a “near-total absence” of cooperation with French authorities, Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said on Wednesday.

French authorities noted an “almost total lack of response from Telegram to legal requests,” Beccuau noted. “This is what led JUNALCO [the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime] to open an investigation into the possible criminal liability of this messaging service’s executives in the commission of these offenses,” she said. The preliminary investigation began in February 2024 and initial investigations were coordinated by the OFMIN, an agency set up to prevent violence against minors, her statement added.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform,” Telegram said on Sunday, before Durov was charged. The platform, which has 900 million active users, did not immediately respond to a request for comment to the charges.

Since his arrest, both the UAE and Russia have requested consular access to Durov, who has citizenship in both countries. It’s unclear why Durov, who also obtained a French passport after leaving Russia, was in France. “I don’t take holidays,” he said on his Telegram channel in June.

Russia has claimed, without evidence, that Durov’s arrest is an attempt by the United States to exert influence over the platform via France. “Telegram is one of the few and at the same time the largest Internet platforms over which the United States has no influence,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said on the app.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday that Durov’s detention is “in no way a political decision.” “It is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law,” he added in a post on X. The European Commission tells WIRED the arrest was conducted under French criminal law and is not connected to new European regulation for tech platforms. “We are closely monitoring the developments related to Telegram and stand ready to cooperate with the French authorities should it be relevant,” a spokesperson says, declining to be named.