Telegram founder was wooed and targeted by governments

At the lunch in 2018, which hasn’t been previously reported, Macron invited the Russian-born Durov to move Telegram to Paris, people familiar with the discussions said. Durov declined at the time. The French leader even discussed granting French citizenship to him, one of the people said.

On Saturday, French authorities detained Durov in an investigation that poses the most serious threat to the antiauthority ethos of Telegram since the app was founded in 2013. His arrest has brought into sharp focus the fraught relationships the 39-year-old Durov has had with governments around the world, which have attempted to both woo and control him, often failing at both.

In 2017, the year before the meeting with Macron, French spies targeted Durov in a joint operation with the United Arab Emirates that hacked his iPhone, according to people familiar with the matter. The spy operation, which also hasn’t been previously reported, was codenamed “Purple Music," the people said. French security officials were acutely concerned about Islamic State’s use of Telegram to recruit operatives and plan attacks.

Governments have targeted Durov because of the groups that were drawn to his app, which range from pro-democracy demonstrators and dissidents to Islamist militants, drug traffickers and cyber criminals.

For years, the company ignored subpoenas and court orders sent by law-enforcement authorities, which piled up in a rarely checked company email address, according to a person close to Durov.

Telegram says it now complies with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which requires online companies to cooperate with authorities in countering the spread of illegal content on their platforms.

This week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Durov was detained as part of an investigation into whether platforms are enabling online criminality, including the exchange of child pornography, drug trafficking and the sale of unauthorized encryption software. Investigators are examining whether online platforms are breaking French law by refusing to cooperate with authorities in countering illegal content.

Prosecutors said they haven’t named Durov or anyone else as a target in their investigation.

While there is no indication that those earlier discussions with Macron or the hacking of Durov’s phone played a role in his detention, the details shed new light on Durov’s long and complicated relationship with France and the U.A.E.

France and the U.A.E. granted Durov citizenship in 2021, and the Gulf country invested more than $75 million into his platform that year.

Durov, by his own account, fought to keep governments from controlling Telegram while cultivating his personal image as an iconoclast. He became a hero to internet libertarians such as Elon Musk and Edward Snowden, who rallied to his defense when he was detained Saturday.Durov has used his own profile on the app to paint a colorful portrait of his life.

In a post last month, he said he was a multinational sperm donor and had fathered more than 100 children for couples in 12 countries. He recently posted a series of photos of himself shirtless on his Instagram account, including a dip into an ice bath.

“Fearless curiosity drives innovation," he wrote in one post, followed by: “The best way to start a day is a few minutes in 0⁰Cwater mixed with ice."

Durov gained early fame in Russia as a tech entrepreneur with a libertarian streak. His political leanings and interest in encrypted-messaging systems made him an irritant to Russian and Western security services alike.

In 2006, he started a Facebook-like media site, VKontakte, which quickly gained traction as a useful channel for members of Russia’s political opposition. The Kremlin demanded information about VKontakte’s users, which Durov resisted. By 2011, the site had become a tool for critics of Vladimir Putinto organize mass protests to challenge his rule. The Kremlin began pressuring Durov to sell VKontakte to a confidant of Putin, Igor Sechin. Durov resisted the sale.

Durov was already working on a new messaging app that would later morph into Telegram. Durov described it as a platform with servers spread around the world that would be essential for anyone trying to evade government surveillance.

Durov eventually left Russia in 2014, saying he faced pressure from the Kremlin to disclose communications of Ukrainian protesters. “Providing personal data of Ukrainians to Russian authorities would not only be a violation of the law, but also a betrayal of all those millions of Ukrainians who trusted us," he wrote on VKontakte.

Afterwards, one of VKontakte’s biggest shareholders said Durov was no dissident but a thief, claiming he embezzled money from the company to develop Telegram. Durov has denied the claims.

He then hopscotched between the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, accumulating passports along the way. In addition to France and the U.A.E., Durov has citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean island nation that offers it to those who can pay. He eventually based Telegram in the U.A.E.

The French passport allowed him to move freely in Europe, including on a bike trip last year to Normandy, according to his social-media posts. He traveled to the U.S. several times, the entrepreneur told the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson this year, adding that he is always greeted by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at the airport and elsewhere who tried to obtain his cooperation.

“My understanding is they wanted to establish a relationship to, in a way, control Telegram better," Durov said.

The FBI declined to comment.

French authorities took him into custody Saturday night after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport north of Paris. Under French law, authorities have 96 hours, or until Wednesday evening, to question Durov before releasing him or charging him with a crime.

Despite the 2018 visit with Macron, French authorities long viewed Telegram with suspicion. A former French intelligence official from France’s General Directorate for Internal Security said that compromising Telegram had been a long-term effort of the country’s spy services, but didn’t comment on the hacking operation against Durov.

France’s new hard line reflects growing concern, particularly in Europe, about the threat that big digital companies pose to society. Authorities worry that Telegram, X, TikTok and other platforms are spreading misinformation, fueling antisemitism and racism and tolerating illegal commerce on their platforms. A French law signed this year requires online platforms to cooperate with authorities in rooting out such content.

That law is mirrored by the EU’s Digital Services Act, which subjects “very large" online platforms to enhanced monitoring and enforcement. Telegram said this week that it is still below the threshold of 45 million active monthly users in the bloc to be considered very large.

Durov spent years dodging the Kremlin and Western intelligence agencies. The importance of Telegram only grew during that time, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Russians and Ukrainians rely on the app for news from the front, while authorities on both sides use its channels to broadcast their narratives about the war.

A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters Tuesday that the case against Durov could be considered to be political and a direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication, if France doesn’t present serious evidence of Durov’s guilt.

“The Kremlin has reconciled itself to Telegram at this point," said Thomas Graham, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that it was ironic that the Kremlin had pivoted to voicing outrage about Durov’s arrest after trying to shutter the app a few years ago.

In his current home in the U.A.E., where political freedoms are sharply curtailed, Durov’s antiestablishment bent seems to be an odd fit. Telegram voice calls, like those of most internet calling apps, are blocked in the U.A.E., which sees encrypted calls as a security risk. Durov would occasionally have to apologize to callers when Telegram calls failed, trying out a few rival apps before finding one that might work, according to a person close to him.

U.A.E. officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. In a statement after Durov’s arrest, the U.A.E. said it was closely following the case and submitted a request to France to provide him with consular services.

Ann M. Simmons contributed to this article.

Write to Joel Schectman atjoel.schectman@wsj.com, Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com and Alan Cullison at alan.cullison@wsj.com