France bars Telegram founder Pavel Durov from traveling to US

French authorities have blocked Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s request to travel to the United States for what he described as “negotiations with investment funds,” citing that such a trip was not deemed essential.

According to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office to POLITICO, the decision was issued on May 12, based on the assessment that “such a trip abroad did not appear imperative or justified.”

Durov, who holds both French and Emirati citizenship, was arrested in France in August 2024 and has been under strict judicial control since being formally indicted in September on six charges linked to alleged illicit activity facilitated by Telegram, the encrypted messaging app he founded. As part of the legal restrictions placed on him, Durov cannot leave French territory without official permission. The prosecutor’s office confirmed that he had previously been granted authorisation to travel to Dubai between March 15 and April 7 of this year.

Since his arrest, Durov has become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the French government. On May 18, coinciding with the runoff in Romania’s presidential election, Durov took to social media to allege that French officials — including Nicolas Lerner, the head of France’s foreign intelligence service — had pressured him to suppress conservative voices on Telegram in the lead-up to the vote.

“French foreign intelligence confirmed they met with me — allegedly to fight terrorism and child porn. In reality, child porn was never even mentioned,” Durov wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “They did want IPs of terror suspects in France, but their main focus was always geopolitics: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine.”

These accusations came after Durov initially said a “Western European government” had requested Telegram to silence conservative users before Romania’s presidential election. Though he did not name the country at first, he later posted a baguette emoji in a message, widely interpreted as a not-so-subtle reference to France.

Telegram responded to the alleged demands with a defiant statement: “You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering in elections. You either have free speech and fair elections — or you don’t.”

French officials have categorically denied Durov’s claims, but have not publicly elaborated further on the matter.

By Tamilla Hasanova