A day after the arrest of Pavel Durov, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of Telegram, at an airport near Paris, the Indian government has begun probing the messaging app.
Durov was arrested after taking off from Azerbaijan in his private jet. A warrant in France led to the arrest.
According to a media report, the Indian government is looking into the popular messaging service because of worries about its being used for illegal activities including gambling and extortion.
According to the article, the investigation’s results may result in an app ban. The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre is conducting the inquiry.
Forbes estimates Durov’s wealth at $15.5 billion. Born in Russia, he currently resides in Dubai and is a dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2013, Durov and his sibling Nikolai founded Telegram. With 900 million active users, the network is well-known for its end-to-end encrypted chat and “channels” for information broadcasting.
Thanks mainly to its privacy characteristics, the app has grown in popularity and is being utilised by numerous social and political movements worldwide.
Telegram is a cloud-based, cross-platform, social media and instant messaging (IM) service, originally launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 October 2013. It allows users to exchange messages, share media and files, and hold private and group voice or video calls as well as public livestreams. It is available for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and web browsers.
As of July 2024, Telegram has more than 950 million monthly active users with India leading in the number of users. It was the most downloaded app worldwide in January 2021 with 1 billion downloads globally as of late August 2021, according to Wikipedia.
