Pavel Durov, founder of the instant messaging app Telegram, has announced that his estimated $17.1 billion fortune will be shared among the more than 100 children he has fathered. Speaking to the French political magazine Le Point, Mr Durov stated, “They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death.”
While claiming to be the “official father” of six children with three different partners, Mr Durov explained how he came to have so many offspring. He said the clinic “where I started donating sperm fifteen years ago to help a friend, told me that more than 100 babies had been conceived this way in 12 countries.”
The self-exiled Russian technology tycoon also told the magazine that his children would not have access to their inheritance for 30 years. “I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account,” he explained. The 40-year-old said he has written a will now because his job “involves risks – defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states”.
In connection with these risks, Mr Durov faces serious criminal charges in France, where he was arrested last year. He is accused of failing to properly moderate his app to reduce criminality, including drug trafficking, child sexual abuse content, and fraud. He has denied any wrongdoing and rejected claims he failed to cooperate with law enforcement. In the Le Point interview, he described the charges as “totally absurd,” adding, “Just because criminals use our messaging service among many others doesn’t make those who run it criminals.”
His app, Telegram, which is known for its focus on privacy and encrypted messaging, has more than a billion monthly active users. Critics have argued that its feature allowing groups of up to 200,000 members makes it easier for misinformation to spread and for users to share conspiracist, neo-Nazi, paedophilic, or terror-related content. In the UK, the app was scrutinised for hosting far-right channels instrumental in organising violent disorder in English cities last summer. According to cybersecurity experts, Telegram’s system of moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies, though it has removed some groups.
Russian-born Mr Durov now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates. He previously founded the Russian social network VKontakte but said in 2014 that he was fired after refusing Kremlin requests to censor posts. He founded Telegram in 2013, and the app remains popular in Russia.
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