The Telegram co-founder has been questioned for the fourth time over allegations that the platform facilitated criminal activity
French investigators have again summoned Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov for questioning as the criminal investigation into the messaging platform nears its second year with no resolution in sight.
Durov spent around six hours being questioned at the Paris Judicial Tribunal on Wednesday, local media reported, citing law enforcement sources. It marked the fourth time the tech entrepreneur has been interrogated as part of the ongoing investigation.
His legal team confirmed the questioning to AFP, saying that “almost two years after the indictment of Pavel Durov, there is still no evidence to establish the validity of the charges.”
“The only change since Durov’s detention in France is that French authorities have started properly drafting requests to Telegram,” the social media platform said in a separate statement.
The legal troubles in France started for Durov in August 2024, when he was arrested at a Paris airport and indicted on a dozen assorted charges. Durov was originally banned from leaving the country, yet the travel restrictions imposed over the case were ultimately lifted.
French prosecutors have accused the entrepreneur of being complicit in crimes committed using his social media platform, linking the case to allegedly weak moderation of illegal content as well as reluctance to cooperate with the insufficient cooperation with the investigation.
Durov has denied any wrongdoing, branding the arrest and the charge “absurd” while accusing the country’s authorities of staging an attack on free speech. The entrepreneur has repeatedly criticized Paris for its policies over the past two years, calling it out for cracking down on social media networks beyond Telegram.
Back in May, he voiced his support for Elon Musk’s X, which has been under investigation over alleged unlawful data harvesting and other offenses. At the time, Durov claimed that the French government has been doing “the very things” it had accused the social media platform of, suggesting that the impending “major political shift in 2027 will expose their misdeeds” and Paris is now scrambling to silence “free speech platforms” to mitigate the potential damage.
