Factbox-Who is Pavel Durov, CEO of messaging app Telegram? By Reuters

(Reuters) – Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested late on Saturday at Bourget airport outside Paris, TF1 TV and BFM TV said, citing unidentified sources.

Both TF1 and BFM said the investigation focused on a lack of moderators on Telegram and that police believed this allowed criminal activity to continue unchecked on the messaging app.

Telegram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The French interior ministry and police did not comment. Russia, which has tried to ban Telegram in the past, said it was taking steps to “clarify” Durov’s situation.

What is known about Durov and Telegram:

* Russian-born Durov, 39, is the founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, a free platform that competes with other social media platforms such as Facebook’s WhatsApp (NASDAQ: ) or Instagram, TikTok and WeChat. The platform aims to exceed one billion monthly active users within a year.

* Telegram is influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It has become a critical source of information about Russia’s war in Ukraine, used heavily by officials in both Moscow and Kiev. Some analysts call the app “a virtual battlefield” for war.

* Durov, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold it.

* Durov became a French citizen in August 2021. He himself and Telegram moved to Dubai in 2017 and, according to French media, also received UAE citizenship. He is also a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis, a two-island nation in the Caribbean, according to media reports.

* Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order to give state security services access to its users’ encrypted messages. The move had little effect on Telegram’s availability there, but sparked mass protests in Moscow and criticism from NGOs.

* Telegram’s growing popularity, however, has led several countries in Europe, including France, to look into security and data breach issues. In May, EU regulators said they were in contact with Telegram as it approached a key usage criterion that could be subject to stricter requirements under a landmark EU law on online content.

* “I’d rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Durov told US journalist Tucker Carlson in April about his exit from Russia and search for a home for his company, which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco .