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On August 24th local time, Pavel Durov, the founder of the social media platform Telegram, was arrested at a French airport.

Sources revealed that the French police are conducting a preliminary investigation into the lack of so-called reviewers on Telegram, and have therefore issued an arrest warrant for Durov, accusing him of not cooperating with law enforcement agencies. The police believe that this situation has led to criminal acts being carried out unscrupulously on Telegram. Durov is charged with crimes including "terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering", etc. If convicted, he may be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Durov is expected to appear in court on the 25th local time.

Russian State Duma Deputy Chairman Davankov called on the Russian Foreign Ministry to find a way to rescue Durov in the early morning of the 25th. He said he had sent a corresponding request to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Russian Embassy in France has taken necessary measures to understand Durov's situation.

It is worth noting that Telegram is an important information dissemination platform in Russia and around the world. It is well-known for its high attention to privacy and security, and provides functions such as message encryption and self-destruction. While it is popular among users, it has also attracted criticism from many governments, who claim that the platform is used by criminals and terrorists to communicate without being discovered. As of July this year, the platform has 950 million monthly active users.

Durov was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1984 and holds multiple nationalities including Russian, French and UAE. He participated in the creation of the Russian social networking platform VK and created the cross-platform instant messaging software "Telegram" in 2013. The software is currently one of the most important social platforms used by Russian media and Russian-speaking users.

In August 2024, Durov made his first appearance on the Bloomberg Billionaires List, ranking 279th with a fortune of $9.15 billion.

Source: CCTV News, Global Times