Elon Musk has defended Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov, who was arrested in Paris on Saturday, and slammed fellow social media billionaire Mark Zuckerberg for bowing to “censorship pressure.”
Musk posted “#FreePavel” X hours after Russian billionaire Pavel was arrested at Le Bourget airport, reportedly for allegedly facilitating criminal activity through 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 could only act on the warrant if the 39-year-old Durov was present in France.
Musk, who said he bought X (formerly Twitter) to promote free speech, slammed the Russia-born tech entrepreneur’s arrest, writing “#FreePavel,” and also shared a video of Durov praising X for leading the way in innovation and free speech.
In a subsequent post on X, Musk slammed social media leader Mark Zuckerberg, quoting a tweet in which he asked why the Meta CEO had not been arrested on the same charges as Pavel.
“Because they’re already bowing to censorship pressure,” Musk wrote on Instagram. There is a huge problem of child exploitationYet Zuckerberg censors free speech and gives the government backdoor access to user data, yet he never gets arrested.”
Mehta, which owns Facebook, has said it will comply with data requests if legally compelled by law enforcement. Messenger and WhatsApp are encryptedThis means that third parties, including Meta, will no longer have access to your data.
Durov, 39, is best known as the founder of social networking site VK (VKontakte) and messaging app Telegram.
He founded Telegram with his brother Nikolai in 2013 but fled Russia in 2014 after refusing to hand over encrypted user data to Russian authorities or silence the community’s opposition to the government. He then sold that data.
In 2018, Russia blocked Telegram after the app refused to comply with a court order and share encryption keys, but the ban was lifted in 2020.
The app, which places a premium on user privacy, has been criticised by a number of governments for allowing extremists and organised criminals to communicate covertly.
It is also a major source of information on the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Durov, who is worth an estimated $15.5 billion, maintains that Telegram is a neutral social media platform and not a “geopolitical player.”
“If we want to make sure that we protect our users’ privacy and their free speech, we think this is the best place for a neutral platform like us to be,” he told Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
Durov is due to appear in court on Sunday on charges related to terrorism, drugs, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen property and child pornography.
Mehta did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on Sunday.
