Telegram CEO Durov Slams France Over ‘Absurd’ Arrest, Stuck in 14-Day Reporting Loop

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has condemned his arrest by French authorities as “legally and logically absurd” one year after being detained for four days over alleged criminal activities on his ￰1￱ Russian-born billionaire remains trapped in France under judicial supervision forced to report to police every 14 days with no appeal date scheduled calling the situation unprecedented for a tech ￰2￱ year ago the French police detained me for 4 days because some people I’d never heard of used Telegram to coordinate ￰3￱ a CEO of a major platform over the actions of its users was not only unprecedented — it was legally and logically absurd. — Pavel Durov (@durov) August 24

2025 Durov’s legal troubles began on August 24 2024 when French police arrested him at Le Bourget Airport near Paris on charges including drug trafficking facilitation money laundering

and illegal cryptographic services ￰4￱ was later released on €5 million bail but faces a potential 10-year prison sentence and €500,000 fine if ￰5￱ case centers on allegations that Telegram’s encryption features and limited content moderation enabled criminal networks to conduct illicit activities worth ￰6￱ authorities argue the platform became a marketplace for illegal services while Durov maintains Telegram follows industry standards and responds to all legal ￰7￱ ongoing investigations prosecutors have struggled to identify specific wrongdoing by Durov or ￰8￱ CEO revealed French police failed to follow proper legal procedures before his arrest

ignoring required protocols that could have been discovered through simple ￰9￱ Battles Criminal Networks While Facing Regulatory Pressure Telegram has emerged as a primary battleground between law enforcement and criminal organizations operating sophisticated marketplace ￰10￱ platform removed thousands of channels connected to Chinese-language marketplaces Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee following blockchain analytics firm Elliptic’s investigation revealing over $35 billion in illicit ￰11￱ Guarantee linked to Cambodia’s ruling elite and North Korea’s Lazarus Group operated as history’s largest illicit marketplace with $27 billion in ￰12￱ platform offered services from money laundering and fake documents to human trafficking operations disguised as legitimate IT companies across Southeast ￰13￱ shuts down $27 billion Huione crypto scam marketplace but rivals surge 400% volume as criminal networks quickly migrate to successor platforms like Tudou Guarantee. #Telegram #CryptoScam ￰0￱ — ￰14￱ (@cryptonews) June 24

2025 However enforcement efforts faced the “hydra effect” as criminal activity immediately migrated to successor ￰15￱ Guarantee absorbed Huione’s displaced users within weeks processing equal transaction volumes while multiple smaller platforms experienced 400% volume ￰16￱ UN estimates Telegram-based criminal activity generates up to $36.5 billion annually primarily using Tether’s USDT ￰17￱ networks exploit the platform’s encryption for communication

reputation management and dispute resolution while avoiding traditional banking ￰18￱ has implemented policy changes since Durov’s arrest now sharing user IP addresses and phone numbers with authorities upon receiving valid court ￰19￱ platform updated its terms of service and removed problematic features while using artificial intelligence to detect illicit ￰20￱ Advocates Rally Behind Embattled CEO’s Free Speech Fight Durov’s case has sparked a global debate over platform accountability user privacy

and the limits of free ￰21￱ advocates including Edward Snowden and Elon Musk criticized French authorities calling the arrest governmental overreach against encrypted communication platforms. #FreePavel ￰22￱ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25

2024 The CEO maintains Telegram will never compromise user privacy despite regulatory pressure stating the company would rather exit certain markets than introduce encryption ￰23￱ fact under his comment section he was accused of giving backdoor ￰24￱ asserts that he’s “rather die — no third party has access to private messages on Telegram.” He emphasized that criminals would simply migrate to less-regulated applications while law-abiding citizens suffer compromised ￰25￱ referenced French legislative attempts to mandate backdoor access for law enforcement

warning that such vulnerabilities could become exploitable by hackers foreign intelligence agencies and ￰26￱ company claims never to have disclosed private message content during its 12-year ￰27￱ year after this strange arrest I still have to return to France every 14 days

with no appeal date in ￰28￱ far the only outcome of my arrest has been massive damage to France’s image as a free ￰29￱ thing is certain: we’ll keep fighting — and we will win — Pavel Durov (@durov) August 24 2025 As it stands now supporters view Durov’s legal battle as testing how far platform creators can be held responsible for user actions

particularly regarding encrypted communication ￰30￱ authorities extended his detention multiple times during initial questioning with Russia’s embassy demanding consular access and an explanation of ￰31￱ investigation began in February 2024 and escalated to a formal inquiry in July weeks before Durov’s arrest during a private jet arrival from Azerbaijan.