RFK Jr., Elon Musk and more reacted to the news that Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France by speaking out in support of free speech on social media.
“The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent,” RFK Jr. wrote on X, reacting to the news, just days after he endorsed former President Trump.
Billionaire and Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on Saturday night, according to TF1 TV and BFM TV, Reuters reported. According to TF1, Durov was served an arrest warrant in relation to a preliminary police investigation.
The investigation regards his company’s messaging app, as French police believe there are not enough moderators to keep criminal activity in check, TF1 reported.
Elon Musk and RFK Jr. spoke out in support of free speech while reacting to the news that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov had been arrested in France. (Left: ((Photo by Richard Bord/WireImage), Center: (Photo by AOP.Press/Corbis via Getty Images), Right: (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images))
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Musk, who also posted “#FreePavel” to social media following the reports, called out the arrest in multiple posts.
“Dangerous times,” he wrote, responding to another tweet that referred to similar instances, including in England.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski also spoke out about Durov’s arrest.
“France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech,” he wrote.
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Ian Miles Cheong, a conservative commentator, argued the arrest was part of a witch hunt.
“This is about silencing dissent and controlling information. They want to turn the internet into another arm of their propaganda machine. We’re watching freedom of speech being attacked right before our eyes,” he wrote.
Others suggested it would lead to larger implications and that governments would go after Musk and X next.
“They’re going after Telegram so they have a pretext to go after X and Elon next,” Joey Mannarino wrote.
Others, including William Shatner, celebrated Durov’s arrest.
“The CEO of @telegram was arrested today in France for failing to moderate his platform. Good. They do nothing to prevent fraud & scams. I’m tired of the scammers who use that platform to pretend they are me,” he wrote.
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Telegram, which has over 900 million users, is a messaging app that is comparable to WhatsApp, but according to The New York Times, also allows large groups of people to communicate across different channels.
The New York Times also reported that the app was on “the radar of law enforcement agencies around the world because terrorist organizations, drug runners, weapons dealers and far-right extremist groups have used it for communicating, recruiting and organizing.”
Fox News’ Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.