The CEO and founder of the telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested this Saturday at an airport near Paris when he got off his private jet. At 39 years of age and French and Russian nationality, Durov resides in Dubai, a city in which he has been living for several years. He is accused of crimes such as fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime or apology for terrorism, among other crimes. According to the AP, citing sources from the French prosecutor's office, Telegram does not rule out "organized criminal groups on his platform" or collaborates with the authorities investigating the crimes charged to him.

"The CEO of the telegram has nothing to hide and often travels throughout Europe. It is absurd that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuses others have committed in it," said Telegram. "Almost a billion users worldwide use Telegram as a means of communication and information," he added. The company, which ensures compliance with EU standards, has underlined that messages are safe because they are "encrypted" and that they "do not receive, or give, information" about users.

Telegram is headquartered in Dubai. It was founded in 2013 by Pavel Durov and his brother Nicolai. Pavel Durov, known as Russian Zuckberg and presented as an advocate of confidentiality on the Internet, left Russia in 2014, after the VK social network created by him refused to comply with the requirements for the closure of Russian opposition communities. According to Forbes magazine, Durov has a fortune of over EUR 13 billion.

In recent years, Telegram has become the main alternative platform for the immediate communication of Whatsapp, even more so after the many complaints and condemnation of the multinational of Mark Zuckerberg for lack of transparency and misuse of personal data. For example, in May 2023 Meta, owner of Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram, among others, was fined EUR 1.2 billion by the Data Protection Committee of Ireland for violating privacy. Telegram has been against the US multinational for the mercenary exploitation of personal data and has highlighted the "respect for the privacy of users" to distinguish itself, despite having a centralized system and not radically encrypting its default messages. Telegram has stated on several occasions that it will never disclose any information about its users, unless the "red lines" are traversed on your computer. Of course, the telegram authorities set the colour of these lines.

Telegram has staged a number of confrontations with justice in recent years. One of the last incidents took place in March in the Spanish state as a whole. The judge of the National Audience Santiago Pedraz requested the "total blockade" of Telegram at the request of the companies Mediaset, Atresmedia and Movistar Plus for "sharing copyrighted content on some channels" of the Telegram. Finally, the judge withdrew the attempted censure, which was appealed by the National Court.