The offer was made during the joint lunch. Durov refused the offer.
The French leader has also discussed the possibility of granting Durov French citizenship.
Although Durov refused Macron’s offer, the founder of “Telegram” still received French citizenship in 2021.
A year before that meeting, French intelligence conducted a joint operation with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that led to the hacking of Durov’s iPhone, people familiar with the matter said.
This espionage operation, which has not been publicly known before, was called “Purple Music”.
French security officials have been deeply concerned that the Islamic State terrorist group is using Telegram to recruit fighters and plan attacks.
According to a person close to Durov, the company has ignored law enforcement and court subpoenas for years.
They have accumulated in a company email address that is rarely checked.
“While there is no indication that these earlier conversations with Macron or the hacking of Durov’s phone played any role in his arrest, these details shed light on Durov’s long and complicated relationship with France and the UAE,” the paper said.
Durov founded Telegram in 2013 after his first project, the Russian social network VKontakte (VK), ran into difficulties that he blamed on the Kremlin. He left Russia in 2014.
Telegram has become extremely popular, in part due to the ease of watching and posting videos on its messaging channels.
But critics charge that it often hosts illegal content, ranging from extreme sexual images, disinformation and even drug-buying services.
The founder of “Telegram” was detained at the Paris Le Bourget airport on Saturday, when he had arrived by private plane from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Durov is accused of not taking steps to limit the criminal use of his platform.
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday that the investigating judge extended Durov’s detention to 48 hours on Monday evening. Authorities must then release him or face charges, the prosecutor’s office said in an earlier statement.
2024-08-28 11:45:18