The Russian founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on Saturday evening, according to multiple French media reports.
Durov, who was wanted in France, was taken into police custody, broadcasters TF1 and BFMTV reported, citing investigators.
He had arrived in the country from Azerbaijan at Le Bourget Airport near Paris.
TF1 reported that a preliminary investigation could be initiated against Durov as early as Sunday.
Investigators from the National Anti-Fraud Office, attached to the French customs department, notified Durov that he was being placed in police custody, the broadcasters said.
French prosecutors declined to comment on Durov's arrest when contacted by The Associated Press (AP) on Sunday, in line with regulations during an ongoing investigation.
French media reported that Durov, 39, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by France based on allegations that his encrypted platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and allowing the sharing of content linked to sexual exploitation of minors.
Western governments have often criticized Telegram for its lack of content moderating on the messaging service.
Russian government officials expressed outrage at Durov's arrest, with some highlighting the West's double standards on freedom of speech.
"In 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, condemned the Russian court's decision to block Telegram," said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Do you think this time they'll appeal to Paris and demand Durov's release?" Zakharova said in a post on her personal Telegram account.
Durov, who also founded the Russian social media platform VKontakte, created Telegram alongside his brother Nikolai.
The encrypted Telegram, with close to 1 billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Russian-born Durov founded Telegram with his brother in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold.
"I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone," Durov told U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his exit from Russia and search for a home for his company which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered – and sometimes graphic and misleading – content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.
The platform has become what some analysts call "a virtual battlefield" for the war, used heavily by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials, as well as the Russian government.
'Neutral platform'
TF1 said Dubai-based Durov had been traveling from Azerbaijan and was arrested at around 8 p.m. (6 p.m. GMT).
Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, said some governments had sought to pressure him but the app should remain a "neutral platform" and not a "player in geopolitics."
Telegram's increasing popularity, however, has prompted scrutiny from several countries in Europe, including France, on security and data breach concerns.
Russia's representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, and several other Russian politicians were quick on Sunday to accuse France of acting as "a dictatorship" – the same criticism that Moscow faced when putting demands on Durov in 2014 and trying to ban Telegram in 2018.
"Some naive persons still don't understand that if they play more or less visible role in international information space it is not safe for them to visit countries which move towards much more totalitarian societies," Ulyanov wrote on X.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said after reports of Durov's detention: "It's 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who on Friday abandoned his U.S. presidential campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump, said on X after the reports that the need to protect free speech, "has never been more urgent."
Several Russian bloggers called for protests at French Embassies throughout the world at noon on Sunday, according to a Reuters report.