In brief
- Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last year.
- Authorities allege illegal material was being shared on the crypto-friendly app.
- Durov will be allowed to travel to Dubai for just two weeks.
Embattled Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov may leave France to travel to Dubai, according to a Thursday report in the French daily Le Monde.
Durov, who was arrested in France last year on allegations his crypto-friendly platform was complicit in allowing illegal material to be shared on the app, will be able to leave the country starting July 10. It is the second time he has received such permission since being detained.
In April, French authorities allowed Durov to briefly travel to Dubai—but not to the United States. Telegram’s offices are headquartered in Dubai. Durov had to pay a €5 million ($5.7 million) bond and report to the authorities twice a week as part of the deal at the time.
Telegram could not immediately be reached for comment.
French police allege that criminals have been using the app and that Telegram was not doing enough to moderate content on it.
They have also said that Durov was under investigation for using certain types of cryptography on the platform in the country without permission.
The app has changed some of its functions since Durov has been cooperating with the authorities following his arrest. Users who now try to share illegal content could have their IP addresses and phone numbers passed to authorities, the app announced last year.
Russian-born Durov, who is worth $13.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, frequently talks about civil liberties and the importance of freedom.
His arrest last year outraged many in the crypto community—and many out of it—with prominent figures like whistleblower Edward Snowden and Tesla boss Elon Musk criticizing the French law enforcement’s move.
Messaging app Telegram is popular in the crypto world, and supports a number of “mini apps” that allow users to earn digital tokens.
A top blockchain, The Open Network, was created by Telegram but then abandoned in 2020 due to regulatory issues.
Development then continued externally via a community of independent programmers. Users can earn its native token, TON, the 21st biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, in the app.
Edited by James Rubin
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