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In the latest attack on free expression in Europe, Pavel Durov is facing 10 years in prison for refusing to censor or spy on the speech of users on his social media platform.
The West’s dangerous trend towards controlling speech took a dark turn over the weekend when France arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov at Le Bourget airport north of Paris.
Earlier this afternoon, Durov was indicted and placed under judicial supervision. Assuming he posts the set bail of 5 million euros, he cannot leave French soil and must report to a police station twice a week.
French authorities accuse the 39-year-old billionaire of failing to moderate content on Telegram, a messaging app that uses encryption to maintain privacy. French law requires social media companies to keep tabs on what is being posted and, if necessary, to pull content or ban users who don’t adhere to certain state-approved standards, as does the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
French authorities pursued 12 charges against Durov, all of which attempt to assign culpability to Durov for criminal activity arranged on Telegram.
For example, Durov was charged with complicity in acquiring, transporting, possessing, offering, or selling narcotic substances because some people have allegedly used Telegram to facilitate drug trafficking.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Telegram officials responded to Durov’s arrest in a statement, saying,
“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving. Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of communication and as a source of vital information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”
Telegram has 900 million users worldwide and 41 million monthly users in the European Union. That puts it under the 45 million needed to be labeled a very large platform under the DSA and be subject to the more stringent regulations involved.
Critics say the arrest is politically motivated. Telegram’s encrypted messages are used by Ukraine and Russia to spread information about the war. Durov is a citizen of Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Russia has demanded diplomatic access to Durov, but France has reportedly rejected that, claiming his French citizenship is his primary citizenship.
Free speech advocates also claim the arrest is a political one. Durov was pressured by the Russian government to shut down opposition communities on his previous site VK, which he refused. Durov then moved to Dubai to flee the pressure.
Durov’s Telegram platform provides privacy for those living under authoritarian governments. Its formidable encryption and self-destruct feature on messages allow communities to communicate without government interference.
But Telegram’s commitment to privacy has garnered unwanted pressure from Western governments who have embraced their own type of authoritarianism through censorship.
Nations like France claim that censorship laws are necessary to stop the spread of harmful content, whether that be illegal activities like child pornography or simply speech governments consider to be “misinformation” or “hateful.”
Free speech advocates assert that it is the latter that motivated France to arrest Durov.
Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University and the author of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, said that Durov is “being charged with misconduct of others using his site. It’s like arresting AT&T’s CEO because the mob used a telephone to do its business.”
Turley went on to explain that the government can absolutely arrest people who use the telephone to engage in criminal conduct or who use social media to engage in human trafficking or child pornography, but “what the complaint is against these social media companies is that they’re not doing enough content moderation.”
He added,
“…they emphasize things like child pornography, but you’ll notice they’re also talking about extreme viewpoints. In England the last two weeks they’ve cracked down on what they consider extreme ideology. Well, who defines that? In England you had someone who was sentenced for having quote ‘toxic ideology.’ So there’s a very dangerous slippery slope that comes from these laws and American citizens should not be distracted by the implications of things like the DSA.”
French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that the arrest was not political and touted a commitment to free expression.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski challenged the accuracy of Macron’s commitment in a post on X, stating, “When you say you are committed to freedom of expression, you are lying. We have a letter from France that proves this, without a doubt. We had to shut down Rumble in France because you have NO committment [sic] to freedom of expression.”
Durov claims he has also received pressure from the United States to allow the government to spy on its citizens.
Durov has accused the FBI of attempting to gain a backdoor into Telegram’s encryption, telling Tucker Carlson that upon arriving in America he was questioned at the airport and his home by FBI agents; the FBI also attempted to recruit one of his engineers to create a backdoor into the code without telling Durov. He cautions that the backdoor could not only be used to allow the U.S. government access, but that it would allow any government to spy on users.
As Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter) put it so succinctly: “Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship.”
Whether it’s in the name of combatting “misinformation” or “disinformation,” stopping “hate speech,” protecting “reproductive rights,” or promoting election integrity or public health, what left-wing governments really want is to stop others from being able to express ideas and information they don’t want people to express. Why? So the masses will only hear and believe ideas and information that the government says is relevant, approved or “true.”
As such, a social media company that won’t censor speech or that won’t allow government to spy on users’ messages is the greatest threat to authoritarians.
One need only look at what is happening in the United Kingdom to see a government now seeking to control public opinion and policy by arresting those with opposing viewpoints as “hateful” or “violent.”
George Washington once cautioned,
“For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.”
This is why the First Amendment and the right to freely speak without fear of government retribution is foundational to all other freedoms — and why it must be so ardently defended.
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