The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France is a warning to online platforms that stand up to censorship, American journalist and political commentator Tucker Carlson has said.
The Russian tech entrepreneur was detained at Paris-Le Bourget Airport on Saturday and will appear in court on Sunday evening. French authorities had reportedly issued an arrest warrant against him, arguing that insufficient moderation allows for Telegram to be widely used by criminals.
The news of Durov’s apparent prosecution has raised concerns online, including suggestions that it could be politically motivated.
“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,” Carlson wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday. “It was a Western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away.”
Durov’s arrest is “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies,” Carlson argued. “Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”
Carlson recorded a rare interview with Durov in April, in which the Telegram owner spoke about his disagreements with the Russian government, as well as the pressure he faced in the US. He said that the American government had wanted him to set up a surveillance “backdoor” on his messaging service, and he refused.
X owner Elon Musk also condemned the reported arrest. “POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” he wrote in a comment to the news story.
Telegram was launched in 2013 and currently has more than 950 million active monthly users. Durov is a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, but has been mostly been living in the UAE since the mid-2010s. He became a French and an Emirati citizen in 2021.