Spies from France and the United Arab Emirates hacked Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s iPhone in 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The joint espionage operation, codenamed “Purple Music,” was reportedly born out of concerns that Islamic State was using the private messaging app Telegram for recruitment and attack planning, and was carried out several years before Durov’s surprise arrest in Paris over the weekend.
The Journal cited an unnamed former French intelligence official as saying France had been pursuing a “long-running effort” to “compromise Telegram”, but did not comment on the hacking of Durov’s phone.
The Journal report did not make clear whether French President Emmanuel Macron was aware of the hack or whether the spies still had backdoor access to Durov’s phone.
The paper also reported that there was no indication that the hacking of Durov’s phone influenced his detention on Saturday.
Politico reported on Tuesday that while Macron was an early adopter of Telegram, French authorities had grown frustrated by the app’s reluctance to cooperate.
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Durov, 39, was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris late on Saturday on suspicion of 12 offences related to failing to curb criminal content on Telegram.
It is expected to be known Wednesday whether he will be charged and taken into custody.
The Russian-born tech entrepreneur left Russia in 2014 after claiming he was pressured to share users’ communications on his social media platform, VKontakte, with Russian security services.
Despite publicly severing ties with Russia, he visited the country more than 50 times between 2015 and 2021, investigative journalism outlet IStories reported on Tuesday, citing leaked FSB data.
The WSJ reported that during a lunch meeting with Macron in the French capital in 2018, the president tried to convince the tech entrepreneur to move Telegram to Paris.
Durov ultimately decided to base Telegram in Dubai.
He received both French and UAE citizenship in 2021, and Abu Dhabi invested $75 million in Telegram that year.
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