Giving Telegram CEO French citizenship was good thing: Emmanuel Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron has defended his decision to give special fast-track citizenship to Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov, who is now under preliminary charges in France over alleged criminal activity on his popular platform.

Macron on Thursday also said he was unaware that Durov was coming to France before his surprise weekend arrest, and had no plans to meet with him.

Free-speech advocates, far-right figures and authoritarian governments around the world have spoken out in Durov's defence and criticised French authorities over the case. Durov was freed on 5 million euro bail but barred from leaving France and ordered to report to a police station twice a week pending further investigation.

French prosecutors accuse Durov of complicity in allowing drug trafficking and sharing of sexual images of children on Telegram, and of refusing to cooperate with authorities investigating illegal activity on the app.

Durov's lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski told French media, It