Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Arrested in France, TON Drops 16%

• Upon arriving at Le Bourget airport north of Paris, Durov was apprehended.
• The inquiry into Durov and Telegram is being coordinated by OFMIN.

French authorities have arrested Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the encrypted messaging platform Telegram. This is in connection with a search warrant that targets suspected infractions of the platform.

Upon arriving at Le Bourget airport north of Paris, Durov was apprehended, according to Le Monde and other French media outlets. His private plane had departed from Azerbaijan.

Moreover, the arrest of Durov was verified by individuals close to the investigation, according to Le Monde. Bloomberg also said that Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, confirmed the details in a Telegram message.

Alleged Absence of Content Control

Furthermore, as part of their preliminary inquiry into Telegram, the French agency responsible for overseeing crimes against children, L’Office Mineurs (OFMIN), reportedly filed a search request. Also, alleged crimes include organized crime, cyberbullying, drug trafficking, and fraud, according to the AFP. The alleged absence of content control by Telegram is reportedly at the heart of the probe.

Moreover, the inquiry into Durov and Telegram is being coordinated by OFMIN. Court proceedings were supposedly scheduled on August 25th for the CEO of the chat network. According to some reports, the seriousness of the charges against Durov means he might spend the next two decades behind bars.

Even in the hours after Durov’s arrest, the messaging platform’s integrated third-party blockchain protocol, the Open Network (TON), asserts that it is completely functional. Moreover, the protocol remained unchanged. And the TON community was uniting behind Durov, according to an official post on the X account.

Musk, who owns both Tesla and the X, posted an interview from August 24 with Durov and independent journalist Tucker Carlson on his social Twitter account, using the hashtag #FreePavel.

Amid the development, the price of Toncoin (TON) has plummeted around 16% in the last 24 hours. And is trading at $5.69 as per data from CMC.

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