Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov has been arrested by French police at an airport north of Paris,
BBC reports.
Mr Durov was detained after his private jet had landed at Le Bourget Airport, French media reported.
According to officials the 39-year-old billionaire was arrested under a warrant for offences related to the popular messaging app. The investigation is reportedly about a lack of moderation, with Mr Durov accused of failing to take steps to curb criminal uses of Telegram.
The app is accused of failure to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud. Telegram has previously denied having insufficient moderation.
Pavel Durov was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based. He holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states.
The app was banned in Russia in 2018, after a previous refusal by him to hand over user data. The ban was reversed in 2021.
Telegram is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Mr Durov founded Telegram in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold.
On Sunday, the Russian Embassy in France wrote on Facebook that it was seeking to "clarify the reasons for the detention and to provide for the protection of Mr Durov’s rights and facilitate consular access".
The post added that French authorities had not been cooperating with Russian officials.
