#MyFirstSquarePost Hello, Binance Square!

Since Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire, founder of the Telegram messaging app/ DOGS, was arrested on landing in Paris on Saturday evening, there has been more speculation than substance about his fate.

Why did French police detain him? What charges will he face?
On Monday evening, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement that Mr Durov was being held in custody as part of a cyber-criminality investigation.

The statement mentioned 12 different offences under investigation that it said were linked to organised crime.

These included illicit transactions, child pornography, fraud and the refusal to disclose information to authorities, the prosecutor said.

Telegram says that Durov “supports Telegram financially and ideologically”. The platform specifically stays away from “politically motivated censorship”, however, it specifies that it does block “terrorist bots and channels”.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Russia and Durov has been fraught with tension. After Durov left the country, Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 when the app refused to provide state security services with access to users’ encrypted messages. The ban was lifted in 2020, though the app — like other online platforms in Russia — faces censorship and government scrutiny.

However, after the entrepreneur’s arrest, Russia was quick to respond, and its embassy in France demanded consular access to Durov and demanded that he have access to his rights

While the direction of the case is still unknown public sentiments continues to grow