Elon Musk defended Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov after his arrest in Paris on Saturday and criticized his social media billionaire Mark Zuckerberg for bowing to “censorship pressure”.
Musk tweeted “#FreePavel” X hours after the exiled Russian billionaire was arrested at Le Bourget airport, reportedly on charges that he allowed criminal activity to flourish on his encrypted messaging app.
French authorities issued a search warrant as part of a preliminary investigation into Durov – a staunch free speech advocate – and Telegram, but were only able to act on the warrant if the 39-year-old was on French soil.
Musk, who said he bought X — formerly Twitter — to further free speech, criticized the Russian-born tech entrepreneur’s arrest in a tweet, writing “#FreePavel” while sharing a video of Durov praising X for the announcement of innovation and free speech.
In a later post on X, Musk hit out at his social media leader Mark Zuckerberg, quoting someone asking why the Meta CEO hasn’t been arrested on similar charges to the ones Pavel faces.
Musk wrote: “Because he already succumbed to censorship pressure. Instagram has a massive child exploitation problem, but no arrest for Zuck, as it censors free speech and gives governments access to user data.”
Facebook owner Meta says it complies with law enforcement requests for data if legally obligated to do so. It says both Messenger and WhatsApp are encrypted, meaning third parties – including Meta – are unable to access the data.
Durov, 39, is best known for founding the social networking site VK (VKontakte) and messaging app Telegram.
He founded Telegram in 2013 with his brother Nikolai, but fled Russia in 2014 after refusing to hand over encrypted user data to Russian officials or silence communities that opposed the government. He later went on to sell that data.
In 2018, Russia blocked Telegram when the app refused to comply with a court order and share its encryption keys, although the ban was lifted in 2020.
The app, which emphasizes user privacy, has drawn criticism from many governments for allowing militants and organized criminals to communicate discreetly.
It has also become a major source of information on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Durov, who is worth an estimated $15.5 billion, has maintained that Telegram is a neutral social media platform and not a “player in geopolitics.”
“I think it’s the best place for a neutral platform like ours if we want to make sure we can protect the privacy and free speech of our users,” he told Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
Durov is expected to appear before a judge on Sunday on charges related to terrorism, narcotics, cooperation, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods and child pornography.
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