The arrest and subsequent indictment of a billionaire who runs one of the world's largest digital platforms is not something that happens every day. Since Saturday, August 24, Pavel Durov's arrest in Paris has made headlines around the world. It has also triggered a tug-of-war between Moscow and Paris and, more broadly, intense debate on the limits of freedom of expression and the responsibility of social media. Le Monde looks back at Durov's whirlwind week.

7:30 pm: An Embraer Legacy 600 jet, chartered by a private company, descended on the runways of Le Bourget airport, near Paris. On board the plane from Baku, Azerbaijan, was a distinguished guest: Pavel Durov, the CEO of the Telegram app, traveling with a single bodyguard and a young crypto-currency influencer. Durov had planned to dine in Paris, but his plans were quickly thwarted. Immediately after landing, he was arrested by the police.

The reasons for this unexpected arrest have since, slowly, emerged. Confirming information from French television stations TF1 and LCI, sources close to the case claim that the 39-year-old billionaire had been the target of a search warrant since July, linked to his messaging service, used by over 900 million people worldwide. Ofmin, the central police office tasked with fighting violence against minors, had been investigating the presence of child pornography content on Telegram for six months, which, according to Politico, had ignored a request from French justice to identify a pedophile. The investigation has since been expanded, with the involvement of several French investigative services.

This is a world first. Never before had the head of a digital platform been arrested. Durov then tried to outwit the investigators: He claimed to be expected at the Élysée by the French President himself, as Le Canard Enchaîné later reported. A bluff: The Élysée quickly denied the claim, asserting that the president was in any case in Le Touquet that Saturday evening. The Telegram boss was taken into police custody; he asked that Xavier Niel, founder of Internet service provider and mobile operator Illiad and long-time acquaintance, also a shareholder in the Le Monde group, be notified.

News of Durov's arrest spread like wildfire on social media overnight. As French investigators were just beginning to question Telegram's CEO at the premises of the Office National Antifraude (ONAF, National Anti-fraud Office), initial outrage spread online. Whistleblower Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, owner of social network X, American TV host Tucker Carlson, misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, and former US presidential conspiracy candidate Robert F. Kennedy... All condemned the arrest as an attack on freedom of expression.

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