Prominent defenders of Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the social media platform Telegram, have fallen quiet after French authorities said on Monday that the billionaire’s arrest stemmed from a failure to moderate child abuse content.
The Russian-born Durov received support from the likes of fellow billionaire Elon Musk and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson after French authorities detained him on Saturday night at the Bourget Airport near Paris.
The incident, which sparked widespread debate over whether social media companies should be regulating their users’ speech, was seen by many as proof that liberal governments wanted to crack down on platforms unwilling to silence unpopular views.
Carlson used the arrest to promote his April interview with Durov while accusing Western countries of trying to “censor the truth.”
“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, that locked him away,” Carlson said. “Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”
Musk, who previously argued that the term “moderation” was merely a “propaganda word for censorship,” struck a similar tone by sharing the hasthag #FreePavel.
Durov’s arrest even earned a post from the normally elusive Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower currently living in Russia.
“The arrest of @Durov is an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association,” Snowden wrote. “I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications. It lowers not only France, but the world.”
Many online, like Snowden, argued that the arrest stemmed from Telegram’s refusal to allow backdoors into its encrypted messaging.
The remarks came before any details had actually been released on what led to Durov’s arrest. Macron, the French president, pushed back on the criticism in a post to X on Monday, in which he stated that the arrest was not politically motivated.
“I read false information here regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov,” a translation of Macron’s statement reads. “France is more than anything attached to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation and to the spirit of enterprise. It will remain so.”
Instead, Macron argued, Durov’s arrest was linked to an “ongoing judicial investigation.”
“In a state governed by the rule of law, on social networks as in real life, freedoms are exercised within a framework established by law to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights. It is up to the justice system, in complete independence, to ensure that the law is respected,” Macron added. “The arrest of the Telegram president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide.”
Details on the investigation became available not long after. In a post to LinkedIn, Jean-Michel Bernigaud, the head of a French agency that works to combat crimes against children, said Telegram failed to actively tackle content linked to pedophilia.
“At the heart of the case is the absence of moderation and cooperation on the part of the platform, especially in the fight against child sex crimes,” Bernigaud said.
Although the platform says it does occasionally take down content calling for violence, Durov did admit in his interview with Carlson that Telegram regularly ignores government data requests on users accused of committing crimes.
The platform also recently faced negative headlines after a series of reports revealed a disturbing and widespread predatory group that used the platform to push self-harm, coercing teenagers into cutting and other acts.
Many are now questioning whether Musk and Durov’s other supporters will amend their statements given the new details surrounding the arrest.
But the current narrative that the arrest was only tied to left-wing efforts to stop the spread of the “truth” online seems to be completely false.
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