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- Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of Telegram, got arrested in France over claims that his app isn’t doing enough to stop illegal activities.
- The arrest has caused a stir, especially because he’s known for fighting against government censorship and supporting digital privacy and crypto.
Pavel Durov, the billionaire behind Telegram, just got himself arrested in France. This went down on Saturday night at Bourget airport, right outside of Paris.
Apparently, he’s been on France’s radar for a while. There was an arrest warrant out for him, linked to a French police investigation.
Why? They claim Telegram lacks enough moderators, and they think this has allowed all sorts of illegal stuff to go down on the app.
In 2014, Pavel left Russia after refusing to shut down some opposition groups on his old social media platform, VK, and he’s been in Dubai ever since, running Telegram, which now has 900 million active users.
He has said a few times that some governments have tried to push him around, but he wants Telegram to stay “neutral” and not get caught up in the geopolitical games.
In places like Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet countries, it’s become a go-to for everyone who wants to stay connected. Pavel wants Telegram to hit 1 billion users by next year.
But with growth comes scrutiny, and that’s where the French cops come in.
The whole beef here is about moderation. French authorities think Telegram is just too loose with it. No surprise there, right?
They argue that because the app doesn’t have enough moderators keeping an eye on things, all kinds of sketchy activities—like drug trafficking and other crimes—have found a cozy home there.
Russian officials, meanwhile, are pissed. The Russian embassy in France was quick to jump in, saying they hadn’t heard a peep from Pavel’s side after the news broke. But they’re taking “immediate” steps to get to the bottom of this situation.
Pavel has a long history of butting heads with governments, especially over issues like digital privacy and freedom of speech. This is the guy who tried to launch the TON (Telegram Open Network) project back in 2018, raising $1.7 billion to create the Gram cryptocurrency.
That venture was supposed to be a game-changer in the crypto industry, but it hit a wall when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) came down hard, citing regulatory concerns and effectively shutting the project down.
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Jai Hamid
Jai Hamid has been covering crypto, stock markets, technology, the global economy, and the geopolitical events that affect markets for the past 6 years. She has worked with blockchain-focused publications including AMB Crypto, Coin Edition, and CryptoTale on market analyses, major companies, regulation, and macroeconomic trends. She has attended London School of Journalism and thrice shared crypto market insights on one of Africa’s top TV networks.
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