Paris. Aug. 26.
Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, remains in a Paris jail cell as of Monday morning. Durov was arrested Friday “as part of an investigation into Telegram’s lack of content moderation and the platform’s role in allegedly enabling criminal activity, according to the Washington Post.” Durov previously fled Russia in 2014 after refusing to hand over data on Ukrainian users on requested by the Russian government. Durov now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship.
Governments around the world are hunting, jailing, and persecuting companies which allow free speech. Previously, this censorship was mostly isolated in socialist regimes such as China and North Korea; or focused on individual journalists. But now governments appear to be seeking to scuttle entire social media platforms.
Elon Musk’s X recently pulled out of Brazil. All X employees have fled the anti-free-speech regime.
The goal of censoring and silencing dissent (masquerading as a crackdown on “hate,” “misinformation,” or whatever) seems to be gaining momentum even among Americans. Especially those affiliated with the Democratic Party. Recently the Democratic Party’s nominee for Vice President, Tim Walz, made remarks supporting increased censorship.
