French authoritries arrested Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram, in an investigation into child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform. Following the arrest of the 39-year-old tech mogul based in Dubai, Telegram issued a statement asserting that Durov has “nothing to hide”.
“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram said in a statement.
The Kremlin expressed uncertainty about the specific allegations against Durov. “We do not yet know what exactly Durov is accused of. Without knowing more, it would be premature to make any statements,” Reuters quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
As the boss of the popular messaging app is in custody as part of a cybercrime investigation, India has seen a surge in searches related to the woman who accompanied him on his journey that led to his arrest and the potential ban of the app in the country. Additionally, there has been increased interest in the Instagram profile of “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg”.
The search for the ban on the app comes after the Centre launched an extortion and gambling probe against Telegram that has over 5 million registered users in the country. It is being conducted by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The investigation’s outcome will determine whether Telegram will continue to operate in India, Moneycontrol reported.
Here’s how the Internet is searching about Telegram in India:
When we typed in Juli Vavilova on Google and hit enter, here’s what we got:
Some users are also searching for the Telegram CEO’s Instagram profile. In case, you’re searching for his profile too, you can type in “durov” on Instagram. The founder of Russia’s largest social network has over 1.5 million followers on the platform.
Many are also searching about his children as he once claimed of having over 100 “biological kids” in 12 countries. Durov, who lives a solitary lifestyle and is unmarried, became a father through sperm donation after a friend facing fertility issues asked for his help.
Durov donated his sperm at a clinic and was informed that his genetic material was considered “high-quality donor material” with the potential to help countless couples worldwide. Although he has stopped being a donor, an IVF clinic still has his frozen sperm, which can be “anonymously used by families who want to have kids”.
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