Self-Styled Free Speech Warriors Bristle at French Arrest of Telegram CEO
Conservative tech businessmen see the arrest as a threat to other companies in the social media space.
Self-fashioned conservative free speech advocates are bristling at the French government’s arrest of the founder of Telegram because of the site’s refusal to moderate its content related to drug trafficking and child sexual content.
Saturday, the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, reportedly was arrested by French police after his private jet landed at an airport north of Paris. Police say he was arrested for charges related to an alleged failure to curb criminal activity on Telegram.
Allegedly, the popular encrypted app has failed to cooperate with law enforcement in efforts to curb drug trafficking, fraud, and child sexual content, allegations which the app denies.
The arrest has spurred backlash from prominent conservatives and tech businessmen who fashion themselves as advocates for free speech, like one-trim presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk.
“It’s Telegram today. It’ll be X tomorrow,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
Mr. Musk, the billionaire owner of X, also tweeted in reference to the arrest, “Liberté.”
The chief executive of the conservative social media site Gab, Andrew Torba, responded with an image of what he says is a request from the German government for information regarding a user.
According to Mr. Torba, the government cited a post that “sexualized and denigrated” a German politician, and requested the individual’s account ID and IP address among other information.
A former PayPal executive, David Sacks, chimed in with a tweet as well, saying that “Using allied countries to circumvent First Amendment protections is the new Rendition.”
The chief executive of the conservative video platform Rumble, Chris Pavlovski, also tweeted in response to the arrest, saying that “I’ve just safely departed from Europe.”
“Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right” Mr. Pavlovski said. “We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release.”
