The tech billionaire is barred from leaving France while investigations into child abuse material and drug trafficking on the platform continue.
Pavel Durov , the founder and chief executive of the messaging app Telegram , is facing preliminary charges after French authorities barred him from leaving France.
Investigative judges filed preliminary charges on Wednesday night and ordered him to pay 5 million euros bail and to report to a police station twice a week, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor's office. The first preliminary charge against him was for ''complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organised group,'' a crime that can lead to sentences of up to 10 years in prison and 500,000 euro fine, the prosecutor's office said.
Mr Durov's arrest in France has caused outrage in Russia, with some government officials calling it politically motivated and proof of the West's double standard on freedom of speech.The outcry has raised eyebrows among Kremlin critics because in 2018, Russian authorities themselves tried to block the Telegram app but failed, withdrawing the ban in 2020.
"It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform," Telegram's post said.
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