Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who fashions himself and the company as champions of free speech, was arrested in France Saturday over allegedly illicit material on the platform.
Russian-born Durov, who founded the communication app in 2013, remained in French custody as of Sunday evening, The New York Times reported.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur was taken into custody at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris after flying into France from Azerbaijan, French news outlets reported.
A French judicial official told the Times his 24-hour custody period was extended to 96 hours per French law.
Telegram said Sunday the company “abides by EU laws” and added that “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide.”
Durov’s former press secretary George Lobushkin called the arrest “a monstrous attack on freedom of speech worldwide.”
Telegram boasts 900 million users and has become a central tool for online communication in Russia and Ukraine. Its free speech stance has allowed people to communicate in countries where online speech is highly regulated and policed, but has also been criticized for allowing harmful posts and disinformation to flourish.
After Durov’s arrest, Toncoin, a cryptocurrency closely linked to the Telegram messaging app, experienced a sharp decline of over 17%.
Toncoin is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network (TON), a blockchain project originally developed by Telegram but later launched as an independent entity. TON is deeply integrated with Telegram, enabling users to leverage Toncoin for payments, storing value, and accessing decentralized applications directly within the messaging platform.
Another cryptocurrency, Notcoin, which operates on the TON blockchain and is recognized for its integration with Telegram’s crypto features, also faced a significant drop following Pavel Durov’s arrest. Notcoin is currently trading at approximately $0.009079, a 25% decrease since the arrest.