New York CNN —The arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France over the weekend has thrust the popular messaging service and its enigmatic founderinto the spotlight. Durov’s arrest comes as the app has faced growing scrutiny for its use by terrorist groups and far-right extremists. Telegram is an encrypted messaging service that was launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother, Nikolai. And earlier this month, the messaging app began actively removing calls to violence from the platform following reports that the app was being used to organize far-right, anti-immigrant riots in the United Kingdom. In addition to running Telegram, Durov has become something of an online influencer, sharing images on Instagram of his world travels (and, often, shirtless photos).

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Persons: Pavel Durov, Durov, fraudsters, Laure Beccuau, Beccuau, Maria Butina —, Emmanuel Macron, ”, ” Macron, “, it’s, Nikolai, launderers, White supremacists, Remi Vaughn, Vaughn, Mark Zuckerberg, Viktor Yanukovich, ” Durov, – Joshua Berlinger, Camille Knight, Anna Chernova Organizations: New, New York CNN, Paris’s, Reuters, ISIS, Financial Times, Trump, Facebook, ”, VK, Ukraine’s, Kremlin Locations: New York, France, Russian, Russia, Paris, Durov, Iran, India, Ukraine, Moscow, Israel, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Kyiv, Dubai