The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov left France, where a criminal case was instituted against him

The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov left France, where a criminal case was instituted against him. According to AFP, with the permission of the court, he was able to go to Dubai.

Durov was detained at the Parisian Airport of Le Burret in August 2024. He was forbidden to leave the territory of France. Durov was charged with complicity of distributing materials related to the operation of children, drug trafficking, laundering money and other crimes related to insufficient moderation of content in Telegram.

After four days of detention, on August 28, 2024, Durov was released on bail in the amount of € 5 million with the condition of prohibition on departure from France and the obligation to be celebrated twice a week in the police.

The case of Pavel Durov caused disputes about whether the platforms should be responsible for the content of users. The media noted that this is an unprecedented situation when the head of the company is held accountable for the actions of the audience. Soon Durov went to cooperate with the French authorities. In January 2025, it was reported that he promised the French judges to tighten moderation in Telegram.

Durov said that over the past six months, Telegram has transferred the data of 10 thousand users to the authorities of different countries and that the messenger administration removes "from 15 to 20 million accounting records of users around the world monthly for violation of the law." Durov rejected the accusations that he encouraged criminal activity on his platform, and emphasized that other social networks were also forced to fight that they were used for illegal purposes.

Answering a question about child pornography, Durov said that such content is deleted immediately and that Telegram is cooperating with several organizations that are fighting the operation of minors.