Telegram's popularity increased after Durov's arrest

Tengrinews.kz - The arrest of Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, in France is beginning to impact the app's popularity and ranking, citing Techcrunch.com.

“Telegram is currently seeing an increase in downloads, sending it to the No. 2 position on the U.S. App Store’s Social Networking charts and boosting its global iOS downloads by 4% so far. Telegram’s lift did not happen immediately after Durov’s arrest. That could be because many people only learned of the news when they were catching up with headlines they missed over the weekend, or because third-party sources for app store intelligence are slightly delayed in picking up ranking changes” the publication said.

In France, where Durov was detained, the app rose to No. 1 in the Social Networking category in the App Store and became third overall.
In the chart of top apps (excluding games), Telegram moved up from 18th place to 8th in the U.S., a gain of 10 positions since Friday. According to Appfigures, this is the highest ranking the app has achieved at least since January 1, 2023.
On August 24, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, was detained at Paris' Le Bourget Airport after arriving on his private jet from Baku. According to local media, Durov, who holds French citizenship, was listed as a wanted individual in the country.
Following his detention, the Telegram team issued a statement asserting that the messaging platform complies with all EU laws, with continuous improvements in moderation, and called it absurd to claim that the platform or its owner is responsible for misuse by users.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated that Durov's detention is part of an "ongoing judicial investigation" and emphasized that the decision is "in no way political."
UAE made a demand to France because of Pavel Durov's arrest
It is worth noting that in addition to his Russian citizenship, Durov holds citizenships from Saint Kitts and Nevis, the UAE, and France.