Paris - The Russian founder of the messaging service Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on Saturday evening, according tolocal 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.
According to the broadcasters, Durov had been arrested under a warrant for offenses related to the popular messaging app.
TF1 reported that a preliminary investigation could be initiated against Durov as early as Sunday. Durov, who also founded the Russian social media platform VKontakte, created Telegram alongside his brother Nikolai.
Telegram is one of the most important online networks in Russia and is used by many authorities and politicians for communication.
Despite the Durov brothers' commitment to protecting user data, they have faced criticism for not consistently addressing hate speech and incitements to violence.
The encrypted Telegram, with close to one 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. Telegram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The French Interior Ministry and police had no comment.
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.
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 a 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. He 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.
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