This is an event of unprecedented magnitude: the arrest and subsequent indictment of a multi-billionaire who runs one of the world’s largest digital platforms. Since August 24, the Pavel Durov affair has been making headlines in the world press. It has also led to a standoff between Moscow and Paris and, more broadly, provoked heated debates about the limits of freedom of expression and the responsibility of social networks.
Saturday August 24: a surprise arrest at the airport
7:30 p.m.: An Embraer Legacy 600 jet, chartered by a private company, completes its descent to the runways of Le Bourget airport (Seine-Saint-Denis). On board the plane from Baku, Azerbaijan, a distinguished guest: Pavel Durov, the CEO of the Telegram application, who is traveling with a bodyguard and a young cryptocurrency influencer. Pavel Durov had planned to dine in Paris, but his plans were quickly thwarted: just after landing, he was arrested by the police.
The reasons for this arrest are gradually filtering out: confirming information from TF1 and LCI, sources close to the case claim that the 39-year-old billionaire had been the target of a search warrant since July in connection with his messaging service, used by more than 900 million people worldwide. The Office for Minors (Ofmin), an investigative service responsible for combating violence against minors, had in fact been investigating for six months the presence of child pornography on Telegram, which the teams had ignored, according to Politicoa French judicial requisition aimed at identifying a pedophile. The investigation has since been expanded, and several French investigative services are participating.
Read the decryption | Article reserved for our subscribers Pavel Durov case: how Telegram allowed child sex abuse content to flourish
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This is a world first. Never before had the head of a digital platform been arrested. Pavel Durov then tries a pirouette in front of the investigators: he is, he claims, expected at the Elysée by the President of the Republic himself, as he will later recount The Chained Duck. A bluff: the Elysée will deny it some time later, arguing that the head of state was in Le Touquet that evening anyway. The boss of Telegram is taken into custody; he asks to have Xavier Niel, founder of Illiad and individual shareholder of the Le Monde Group, whom he has known for a long time, notified.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers The arrest in France of Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, a world first
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Sunday August 25: first indignant reactions
The news of Pavel Durov’s arrest spread overnight on social media. While French investigators are only just beginning to question the Telegram CEO in the offices of the National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF), the first outrages are emerging online. Whistleblower Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, owner of the social network X, American presenter Tucker Carlson, masculinist influencer Andrew Tate and former conspiracy theorist candidate for the American presidential election Robert F. Kennedy Jr, all denounce an attack on freedom of expression.
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