Telegram founder Durov faces Paris court for the first time

Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov reportedly appeared in a Paris court for the first time to address allegations of the messaging app’s involvement in criminal activities. He was arrested in August at a Paris airport and subsequently charged with multiple counts related to failing to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorist content on the messaging platform.

Durov was accompanied by his lawyers, David-Olivier Kaminski and Christophe Ingrain, to attend the hearing at 10 a.m. CET. According to an anonymous source familiar with the proceedings, his questioning centered on Telegram’s alleged use for illicit transactions. 

When approached by Agence France-Presse (AFP) for comments, Durov declined to provide further details, expressing trust in the French justice system without elaborating on the specifics of the case.

The Telegram head, originally from Russia, left his home country after Telegram was banned from 2018 to 2021. His departure came after a standoff with the Russian government, which demanded user data from Telegram, a request Durov refused. 

He later became a French citizen in 2021, though he had resided in Dubai for many years prior to his arrest. In Dubai, he was known as the youngest and richest billionaire in the Middle East before his legal troubles began in France.

Pavel Durov’s court charges 

The legal saga surrounding Durov began on August 24 when he was temporarily detained at Le Bourget airport in Paris. He was subsequently released on bail of approximately $6 million but remains under restrictions, with authorities barring him from leaving France until March 2025. 

The Paris prosecutor’s office, known as the Parquet de Paris, officially issued preliminary charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov on August 28. The charges accuse Durov of facilitating a platform that enables illicit transactions. If convicted, Durov could face a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of $550,000.

The investigation into Telegram began in February 2024, with French authorities launching a preliminary probe into the messaging platform. The inquiry escalated to a judicial investigation on July 8, more than a month before Durov’s arrest in Paris.

Since his arrest, Durov hasn’t made the “child pornography” case filed against him any easier. In early November, per a Forbes report, he announced the launch of a controversial initiative to cover the cost of IVF treatments for women under 38 who wish to conceive using his sperm. 

The initiative follows statements Durov made in July, revealing that he has fathered over 100 children across 12 countries through sperm donations over the past 15 years. He also plans to “open-source” his DNA, allowing his biological children to connect more easily.

Durov explained that he was once encouraged by a staff member at an IVF clinic to view sperm donation as his “civic duty” to assist couples struggling to conceive.

Telegram improves efforts to combat illegal content 

In other news, Telegram recently unveiled a new partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK-based charity specializing in the identification and removal of child sexual abuse imagery. The collaboration is part of Telegram’s ongoing efforts to rehabilitate the platform’s reputation regarding illegal content, particularly child exploitation material.

Telegram has agreed to deploy IWF’s tools and data to detect, disrupt, remove, and block instances of child sexual abuse material. According to the IWF, thousands of instances of CSAM have been identified on Telegram since 2022. 

The charity, which operates as a global leader in the fight against online child sexual abuse, will now provide Telegram with unique digital fingerprints of known illegal content, helping the platform better identify and prevent the spread of abusive material.

Derek Ray-Hill, interim CEO of IWF, hailed the partnership as a “transformational first step,” emphasizing that the initiative is only the beginning of a longer journey to eliminate online sexual abuse material. 

“We look forward to seeing what further steps we can take together to create a world in which the spread of online sexual abuse material is virtually impossible,” Ray-Hill said.

Remi Vaughn, Telegram’s head of Press and Media Relations, echoed Ray-Hill’s statement, affirming IWF’s tools would enhance Telegram’s existing content moderation mechanisms. 

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