French authorities have allowed Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO and founder, to temporarily leave the country while criminal activity on the messaging platform is still under investigation.
Earlier today, Durov revealed in a Telegram post that he had returned to Dubai after reportedly leaving France from Le Bourget Airport outside Paris.
An official at the Paris prosecutor’s office told Bloomberg that the judicial order restricting Durov from traveling outside France during the Telegram criminal investigation was suspended between March 15 and April 7.
“As you may have heard, I’ve returned to Dubai after spending several months in France due to an investigation related to the activity of criminals on Telegram. The process is ongoing, but it feels great to be home,” he said.
“I want to thank the investigative judges for letting this happen, as well as my lawyers and team for their relentless efforts in demonstrating that, when it comes to moderation, cooperation, and fighting crime, for years Telegram not only met but exceeded its legal obligations.”
Durov was arrested in France at Le Bourget Airport near Paris in late August 2024 in connection with an investigation into Telegram’s use for fraud, drug trafficking, and illegal content distribution.
Days later, he was released on bail set at €5 million (roughly $5.6 million), but he was instructed not to leave the country because French authorities were still investigating him.
One month after Durov’s arrest, Telegram announced that it started sharing users’ phone numbers and IP addresses with law enforcement if they violated the platform’s rules following valid legal requests and only after receiving a valid court order confirming that the user is a suspect in a criminal case that breaches the platform’s Terms of Service.
Before the September announcement, Telegram’s policy limited sensitive user information sharing to cases involving terror suspects. Telegram’s CEO also said the platform improved its search feature (known for widespread abuse to sell and promote illegal goods) to remove problematic content.
“These measures should discourage criminals. Telegram Search is meant for finding friends and discovering news, not for promoting illegal goods,” Durov said. “We won’t let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users.”
In January, Telegram also announced that it shared the phone number or IP address information of 2,253 users with law enforcement after 900 U.S. government requests.
As Durov announced last year, Telegram reached 950million monthly active users in July and 10 million paid subscribers two months later.
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