Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced on Monday that he has travelled from France to Dubai while French authorities continue investigating criminal activity on his messaging app.
Durov disclosed his location in a post on his Telegram channel. He was detained last year upon his arrival in Paris, where French authorities pressed preliminary charges against him for allegedly permitting criminal activity on the platform.
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Following his arrest, Durov was prohibited from leaving France during the ongoing investigation and was required to report to a police station twice a week.
âAs you may have heard, Iâve returned to Dubai after spending several months in France due to an investigation related to the activity of criminals on Telegram,â Durov wrote. âThe process is ongoing, but it feels great to be home.â
French investigators claim that Telegram has been used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking and that the platform failed to provide information or documents to investigators when legally required.
In his post, Durov expressed gratitude to the âinvestigative judges for letting this happen.â
Authorities detained Durov last August when he arrived at Le Bourget airport near Paris and interrogated him for four days as part of a broad investigation.
Durov stated in his post that, regarding moderation, cooperation, and crime prevention, Telegram has not only met but exceeded its legal obligations for years.
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Following his arrest last year, he maintained that Telegram is not âsome sort of anarchic paradiseâ and attributed the challenges to a surge in users, which, he said, led to growing pains that made it easier for criminals to exploit the platform.