French media reported that Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov had been arrested in France after his private plane landed at Le Bourget Airport on Saturday.
Le Monde reported that Durov had been arrested on a warrant for “various violations” of his encrypted message service. The 39-year-old, who gained French citizenship in 2021 is expected to appear before a court on Sunday.
Durov is accused by the French authorities of a “lack of moderation” in Telegram. According to reports, the messaging app has been attacked in Europe because of “viral dissemination of false information.”
Le Monde reported that “Telegram shielded themselves from state moderation laws, at a moment when the European Union (EU) and the United States put pressure on major platforms to remove illegal content.”
The French newspaper reported that the OFMIN (Office to Combat Violence Against Minors), France, issued the warrant in the course of an investigation into “offenses ranging anywhere from fraud, drug-trafficking, cyberbullying to organized crime to glorification and terrorism.”
A French investigator declared: “Enough of Telegram’s impunity.”
Durov, a man who is not accustomed to giving interviews, told Tucker Carlson, formerly of Fox News, that the Russian government had been the first to ask him to censor his speech via VK, to stop protests.
Durov said, “We were asked to ban [protest organizing] groups — and I refused.” “But this did not go well with the Government.”
Watch Below:
Durov added, “A few years later, in 2013, you had similar protests in Ukraine, where people would again use VK for organizing themselves and going to the main square in the city to show their dissatisfaction with the government.”
“We were asked by the Russians to provide the personal data of the protest organizers. We refused, as this was a completely different country. We wouldn’t betray the Ukrainian users just because you wanted us to.
Durov resigned as CEO of VK.
He said, “I had to make a tough decision.” “I was given two options that were not optimal: I could either comply with what the leaders of countries told me to do or I could sell my share in the company, retire and resign from the position of CEO and leave the country. I chose to leave the country.
Carlson responded to Durov’s arrest in a post on Saturday X, writing: “In the end, it wasn’t Putin that arrested him because he allowed the public to exercise freedom of speech.” It was a Western nation, an ally of the Biden administration, and a NATO enthusiast that put him in jail.
Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member,… https://t.co/F83E9GbNHC
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2024
Carlson said: “Pavel Durov is sitting in a French prison tonight. He’s a warning to anyone who owns a platform and refuses to censor truths at the behest of governments or intelligence agencies.” “Darkness has descended fast on the once free world.”
Elon Musk also responded to the arrest by calling it a “very persuasive” “advertisement for the First Amendment.”
Check out this ad for the First Amendment. It is very convincing.
https://t.co/mb4UCSZcgR— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2024
