Messaging app Telegram has said its CEO Pavel Durov, who was arrested in France on Saturday, has “nothing to hide.”
Mr Durov was arrested at an airport north of Paris on an arrest warrant for crimes related to the app, officials said.
The investigation is reportedly about inadequate moderation. Mr Durov is accused of failing to take measures to curb criminal use of Telegram. The app is accused of not cooperating with law enforcement on drug trafficking, sexual content involving children and fraud.
In a statement, Telegram said that “moderation meets industry standards and is constantly improving.”
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform,” the app says.
Telegram said Mr Durov traveled to Europe frequently, adding that the company complies with European Union laws, including the Digital Services Act, whose aim is to ensure a safe and responsible online environment.
“Nearly a billion users worldwide use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of important information,” the app said in a statement.
“We expect a quick resolution to this situation. Telegram is with you all.”
Judicial sources cited by AFP news agency said Durov’s pre-trial detention was extended on Sunday and could last up to 96 hours.
Pavel Durov, 39, was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based. He holds citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and the states of the former Soviet Union.
The app was banned in Russia in 2018 after it previously refused to hand over user data. The ban was lifted in 2021.
Telegram is considered one of the most important social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Mr Durov founded Telegram in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he later sold.
Russia still considers Mr Durov a Russian citizen. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Russian Embassy in France “immediately took the steps required in such cases to clarify the situation surrounding the Russian citizen, although it did not receive a request from the businessman’s representatives.”
The embassy itself stated that it was trying to “clarify the reasons for the detention, ensure the protection of Mr. Durov’s rights and facilitate consular access.”
It was further stated that the French authorities had not cooperated with Russian officials.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked on Telegram whether Western human rights NGOs would remain silent on Mr Durov’s arrest after criticising Russia’s decision to impose “stoning operations” on Telegram’s work in Russia in 2018.
Telegram allows groups with up to 200,000 members, which critics say facilitates the spread of false information and the exchange of conspiracy-theoretical, neo-Nazi, pedophile or terrorist content.
In the UK, the app came under criticism for hosting far-right channels that were instrumental in organising violent riots in English cities earlier this month.
Although Telegram has removed some groups, overall its system for moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies and messaging apps, cybersecurity experts say.
