French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday claimed that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest outside Paris over the weekend was “in no way a political decision.”
The development came after a French magistrate on Sunday extended the 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire’s detention, French daily newspaper Le Monde reported.
“I have seen false information regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov,” Macron wrote in a statement shared to X on Monday.
“France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship,” he said. “It will remain so. In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights. It is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law. The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”
Durov was arrested on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after reportedly landing on a private jet from Azerbaijan, prompting swift outcry from free speech advocates, including fellow tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk, and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has brought censorship allegations against the media and the Biden-Harris administration.
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Telegram released a statement on Sunday saying Durov “has nothing to hide.”
“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving,” Telegram said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
“Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of communication and as a source of vital information,” it said. “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”
France’s national cyber crime and fraud offices are investigating Durov for allegedly failing to cooperate over cyber and financial crimes on Telegram, a police spokesman told Reuters.
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The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement Monday that the suspected violations include complicity in selling child pornography and in drug trafficking, fraud, abetting organized crime transactions and refusing to share information or documents with investigators when required by law, The Associated Press reported.
Jean-Michel Bernigaud, secretary general of Ofmin, a French police agency tasked with preventing violence against minors, said Durov’s arrest was related to the platform allegedly not properly moderating content related to child sex crimes.
“At the heart of this issue is the lack of moderation and cooperation on the part of the platform (which has nearly 1 billion users), particularly in the fight against pedophilia,” Bernigaud wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday.
The investigating magistrate decided to extend Durov’s detention past Sunday night, Le Monde reported, citing a source close to the investigation. The maximum detention period is 96 hours, before the judge must decide to release Durov or press charges against him and remand him into further custody.
Durov is a dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates. Born in Soviet Leningrad, Durov graduated from St. Petersburg State University and left Russia in 2014 after refusing government orders to shut down opposition communities on his former social media platform, VK, which he has since sold, according to Reuters.
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