Telegram says its CEO Pavel Durov has “nothing to hide” after he was arrested in Paris.
Durov, who co-founded the messaging platform in 2013, was detained on Saturday, French authorities confirmed Sunday, according to The Washington Post. The warrant alleges that Telegram is not properly moderated and is being used for an array of illegal activity, including money laundering and drug trafficking, the AP reported.
The platform defended its moderation practices and its CEO in a post on X on Sunday, writing, “Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”
“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” the post continued. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of communication and as a source of vital information.”
Elon Musk, a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” also took to X over the weekend to defend Durov. Musk, who said Durov’s arrest is a violation of free speech, wrote “Liberté Liberté! Liberté?” in one post on X about Durov’s arrest and “Dangerous times” in another.
Durov was born in Russia but fled the country in 2014 after refusing to turn over data from a previous platform he founded to Russian authorities. He is now a citizen of the United Arab Emirates and France, according to The Washington Post.
French President Emmanuel Macron also posted about Durov’s arrest on X on Monday morning.
Macron insisted that France “is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship,” but added that those “freedoms are upheld within a legal framework.”
“The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” Macron wrote. “It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”
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