Messaging app Telegram said its CEO Pavel Durov, who was detained in France on Saturday, has “nothing to hide.”
Authorities said Durov was arrested at an airport north of Paris on an arrest warrant for alleged crimes related to the app.
The investigation is reportedly about inadequate moderation, with Durov accused of failing to take steps to curb criminal use of Telegram, with the app accused of failing to cooperate with law enforcement regarding drug trafficking, child sexual content, and fraud.
In a statement, Telegram said its moderation is within industry standards and is constantly improving.
“It is absurd to claim that the platform or its owners are responsible for misuse of their platform,” the app said.
Telegram said Durov was a frequent traveller to Europe, adding that it complies with European Union laws, including the Digital Services Act, which aims to ensure a safe and responsible online environment.
“Nearly one billion users around the world rely on Telegram for communication and essential information sources,” a statement from the app read.
“We await a quick resolution to this situation. Telegram stands with you.”
Durov's detention was extended on Sunday and could last up to 96 hours, a judicial source quoted by AFP said.
Pavel Durov, 39, was born in Russia and currently lives in Telegram's home base in Dubai. He holds both UAE and French nationality.
Telegram is especially popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet republics.
The app was banned in Russia in 2018 after he refused to hand over user data. The ban was lifted in 2021.
Telegram ranks as one of the leading social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Durov founded Telegram in 2013 and left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform, VKontakte.
Russia still considers Durov a Russian national. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Russian embassy in France “immediately took the necessary steps in such cases to clarify the situation surrounding a Russian national, despite not having received a request from the businessman's representatives.”
The embassy said at the time that it aimed to “clarify the reasons for the detention, protect Mr. Durov's rights and facilitate consular access.”
He added that French authorities were not cooperating with their Russian counterparts.
In a Telegram post, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked whether Russia was staying silent about Durov's arrest, given that Western human rights NGOs in 2018 criticised Russia's decision to “create obstacles” to Telegram's activity on Russian soil.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia was still unclear on what charges Durov had been arrested and so it would be right to wait to see what formal charges, if any, were filed against him before commenting further.
Telegram allows the creation of groups with up to 200,000 members, but critics say this makes it easier for misinformation to spread and for users to share conspiracy theories, neo-Nazi, pedophile and terrorism-related content.
The app has come under scrutiny in the UK for hosting far-right channels that played a key role in organising riots in English cities earlier this month.
Telegram has indeed removed some groups, but overall its systems for moderating extremist and illegal content are significantly weaker than those of other social media companies and messaging apps, cybersecurity experts say.
