Russian-born Mr Durov now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based. He holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates.
The founder of VKontakte said in 2014 that he had been fired from the Russian social network after refusing requests from the Kremlin to censor posts.
He founded Telegram in 2013, and the app remains popular in Russia.
Telegram allows groups of up to 200,000 members, which critics have argued makes it easier for misinformation to spread, and for users to share conspiracist, neo-Nazi, paedophilic or terror-related content.
Earlier this year, Mr Durov defended Telegram’s record on tackling child abuse.
“Since 2018, Telegram has fought child abuse in many ways: content fingerprint bans, dedicated moderation teams, NGO hotlines, and daily transparency reports on banned content – all verifiable,” he wrote in a post on X, external.
“Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to remove child porn is a manipulation tactic.”
A Telegram spokesperson told BBC News that the app was “not effective for the spread of harmful content because it does not use algorithms that promote sensational materials like those used on other platforms”.
In the UK, the app was scrutinised for hosting far-right channels that were instrumental in organising the violent disorder in English cities last summer.
Telegram did remove some groups, but overall its system of moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies and messenger apps, according to cybersecurity experts.
The app says it has “removed all channels found sharing calls for violence” and it denies that its system of moderation is weaker than others’. “This is false,” its spokesperson said. “Telegram’s moderation meets or exceeds all industry standards.”
“Telegram blocks tens of thousands of groups and channels daily and removes millions of pieces of content that violate its Terms of Service, including incitement to violence, sharing child abuse materials, and trading illegal goods,” the app says on its site, external.