Elon Musk defended Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov following his arrest in Paris on Saturday and slammed fellow social media billionaire Mark Zuckerberg for caving into “censorship pressure.”
Musk wrote “#FreePavel” on X hours after the billionaire Russian exile was arrested at Le Bourget airport, reportedly over allegations he has allowed criminal activity to thrive 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, slammed the Russian-born tech entrepreneur’s arrest in a post, writing “#FreePavel” while sharing a clip of Durov praising X for heralding innovation and free speech.
In a subsequent post to X, Musk slammed fellow social media leader Mark Zuckerberg, quote tweeting someone asking why the Meta CEO hasn’t been arrested for similar allegations as those faced by Pavel.
Musk wrote, “Because he already caved into censorship pressure. Instagram has a massive child exploitation problem, but no arrest for Zuck, as he censors free speech and gives governments backdoor access to user data.”
Facebook owner Meta says it complies with law enforcement requests for data if they are legally compelled. It says both Messenger and WhatsApp are encrypted, meaning third-parties — including Meta — are not be able to access the data.
Durov, 39, is best known for founding the social networking site VK (VKontakte) and the messaging app Telegram.
He created Telegram in 2013 with his brother Nikolai but fled Russia in 2014 after he refused to hand over encrypted user data to Russian officials or silence communities opposing 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, though the ban was lifted in 2020.
The app, which emphasizes users’ privacy, has drawn criticism from many governments for allowing militants and organized criminals to discreetly communicate.
It has also become a major source of information in 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 to be in if we want to make sure we can defend our users’ privacy and freedom of speech,” he told Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
Durov is expected to appear before a judge Sunday on charges connected to terrorism, narcotics, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods and child pornography.
