Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov delivers a keynote speech during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of the Telegram messaging app, miscalculated by fleeing Russia and thinking that he would never have to cooperate with the security services abroad.

Medvedev related a conversation he had with Durov several years ago in which Medvedev told him that if he did not want to cooperate with law enforcement agencies then he would have problems in any country.

Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said Durov wanted to be a 'brilliant "man of the world" who lives wonderfully without a Motherland."

"He miscalculated," Medvedev said. "For all our common enemies now, he is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous."

"Durov should finally realise that one cannot chose one's the fatherland," Medvedev said.

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Telegram app founder Pavel Durov arrested at airport in France

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested after he flew into Le Bourget airport outside Paris on his private jet on Saturday night.

Russian-born Durov has been the subject of an arrest warrant in France.

According to French media reports, the investigation focuses on the lack of moderators on Telegram, which police allege allows criminal activity, such as drug dealing and pedophilia networking, to take place unhindered on the messaging app.

His arrest has sparked a wave of concern in the tech community and among internet freedom advocates.

Telegram, with nearly a billion users, is known for its focus on privacy and encryption, features that have made it popular but also controversial.

The impact of Telegram

Telegram has become one of the leading social media platforms, ranking high alongside giants like Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and WeChat.

Its influence is particularly noticeable in Russia, Ukraine, and the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered content about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict, but it has also been a source of disinformation.

Some analysts describe it as a "virtual battlefield" used intensively by both Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials, as well as by the Russian government.

However, it is an application that still does not meet the requirements of the European Union, which has led to it being temporarily suspended in some member countries, such as Spain.

Durov's past and his search for freedom

Russian-born Durov founded Telegram with his brother in 2013.

He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he eventually sold.

In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson in April, Durov explained his departure from Russia and search for a home for his company, which included stays in Berlin, London, Singapore, and San Francisco.

"I prefer to be free than to take orders from someone," Durov said in the interview, stressing his commitment to freedom of expression and privacy.

Durov’s arrest raises important questions about the balance between freedom of expression and the need to moderate online content.

Telegram has faced criticism for its relatively lax approach to moderation, which has allowed the platform to be used for illegal activities but has also provided a space for free expression in authoritarian regimes.

This case could have far-reaching implications for social media and messaging platforms around the world, potentially influencing future content moderation policies and the way these platforms operate in different legal jurisdictions.

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Elon Musk defends Telegram CEO Pavel Durov after arrest in France: "Dangerous times"

• X owner Elon Musk defended Telegram CEO Pavel Durov after his arrest in France.

• Durov's arrest stemmed from an investigation of illegal activities on Telegram, authorities said.

• Musk said the arrest was a violation of freedom of speech.

After Elon Musk purchased Twitter and renamed it X, he became a vociferous voice for the First Amendment and a "free speech absolutist."

He quickly dialed back moderation on the popular social media platform, allowing all kinds of content to flourish, some of it hateful, some of it controversial, some of it misinformation, but all of it largely unfettered.

"Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship," Musk once said.

He reminded his millions of followers of this today after French police arrested Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, near Paris on Saturday.

Police told local media they are investigating criminal offenses — including fraud, drug trafficking, and organized crime — on Telegram. It comes after some European nations have accused Telegram of failing to moderate criminal content.

If there's a kindred colleague for Musk out there in the world, it's Durov. The Telegram founder fled Russia to avoid giving up user data for the Russian social media platform he founded in 2006 called Vkontakte. And he has repeatedly refused to curb content on Telegram related to the conflict in Ukraine and Gaza, or of communications between groups considered terrorists by some Western governments.

"We cannot make messaging technology secure for everybody except terrorists," Durov said in an interview with CNN in February 2016. "It's either secure or not secure."

That sort of message resonates with Musk, who, in a series of posts since Durov's arrest, criticized the move as a violation of free speech.

"Liberté Liberté! Liberté?" he wrote in one post. "Dangerous times," he wrote in another post.

Musk added a "FreePavel" hashtag when he shared a video of Durov praising Musk and his pro-free-speech outlook during an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year.

"It is vital to the support of free speech that you forward X posts to people you know, especially in censorship-heavy countries," Musk wrote on X on Sunday.

He also reposted a tweet from Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble, a right-wing rival to YouTube. Pavlovski said in a post on Sunday that France "crossed a red line" with Durov's arrest.

While Musk brands himself a free speech absolutist, he has a history of silencing his critics. He has fired employees who disagreed with him and banned accounts critical of him.

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