Pavel Durov, the enigmatic Russian-born billionaire boss of messaging app Telegram, has his third audience with a French investigating magistrate in the coming days, following his dramatic arrest 10 months ago on wide-ranging charges including complicity in terrorist content, drug trafficking and child sex abuse material.
Since then, he's been under travel restrictions as French authorities investigate whether his app adequately complied with police requests, but he has been able to visit his country of residence, Dubai.
He recently gave a rare interview, his longest-ever, to Guillaume Grallet, Technology Reporter for Le Point magazine and the face of Tech 24 on FRANCE 24's French channel.
In the interview, Durov reveals his plan to bequeath his wealth equally among his more than 100 sperm-donor children and his six other children. He praises Meredith Whittaker of rival messaging app Signal, who's been critical of Telegram's own encryption policy. Durov also details his turbulent relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron, saying they used to text regularly, but that now he would not even agree to meet the French president – and has, in fact, left him on read. He accuses France's spy agency, the DGSE, of trying to pressure Telegram to remove accounts belonging to supporters of conservative candidates in the Romanian election. The DGSE has responded by denying this, saying that Durov has a "curious relationship with the truth."
Durov also shared that he would have his third audience with the French investigating magistrate overseeing his case later this month, as he hopes to get the charges lifted, avoiding a trial and possible long prison sentence.
Grallet spoke to Tech 24 in this edition, sharing his insights from a decade's work on Durov.
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Guillaume GRALLET Technology Editor, Le Point
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