Telegram CEO Durov indicted in France, banned from leaving country

French prosecutors indicted the chief executive of popular messaging service Telegram Wednesday on charges of complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement.

Prosecutors charged Pavel Durov with multiple offenses after four days of questioning following his arrest at an airport near Paris, ordering him to put up a 5 million euro bond and barring him from leaving France.

The billionaire founder’s case is an unprecedented test of the power of governments over multinational tech companies operating under widely varying laws around the world. Durov’s Telegram is unusual for being run from a nonaligned Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates, and for declaring that it shares nothing with authorities anywhere.

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