Telegram CEO's arrest revives fears of social media control: 'Dangerous times'

Reactions to the arrest this Saturday in Paris of Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov continue to pour in.

The arrest of the 39-year-old billionaire, who this Monday remains in pretrial detention, came as part of a multi-crime investigation in which Durov is suspected of failing to take the necessary actions to prevent the use of the Telegram platform for criminal purposes such as drug trafficking or fraud.

Faced with this accusation, for which the manager of a network with more than 900 million users is basically being held responsible for not moderating the behavior of; there are numerous voices that wanted to raise their voices against what they consider a frontal attack on freedom of speech.

Elon Musk warns of totalitarian drift: "Dangerous times"

One of the most prominent critics was the owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, who was particularly concerned about Pavel Durov's arrest. After the news broke, the tycoon posted the hashtag "#FreePavel" on social networks and denounced the arrest in several messages. In one of his most recent posts, Musk went further and unpacked the wave of censorship and persecution of social network owners and users that is occurring in several traditionally democratic countries, especially in Europe. From arrests for posting a meme to arbitrary bans on social networks where open criticism is practiced; recalling even the recent episode of judicial persecution for which the social network X had to leave Brazil.

"Dangerous times"Elon Musk

Elon Musk was not the only social network owner to be outraged by Duorv's arrest. Others such as Rumble owner Chris Pavlovski also denounced Durov's detention.

"France has threatened Rumble and now has crossed a red line by arresting Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, allegedly for not censoring speech," he wrote.

These reactions contrast with the silence of other major communication and social media figures such as Mark Zuckerberg. Elon Musk himself recalled that the social media giant has also been the subject of similar accusations to those faced by Pavel. The difference with Zuckerberg, in Musk's view, is that the latter has already given in to the pressure of censorship.

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.Elon Musk

RFK Jr: "The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent"

On the political level, one of the strongest reactions to Pavel Durov's arrest came from RFK Jr. The until recently presidential candidate noted that "the need to protect free speech has never been more urgent."

Social networks share the concern: "This looks very bad"

The fears of public figures like RFK Jr. and Elon Musk were shared by other prominent politicians, commentators and social media executives.

The founder of the Ethereum cryptocurrency, Vitalik Buterin, pointed out that "this looks very bad and is worrying for the future of software and freedom of communications in Europe," in reference to the European regulation that requires platforms to provide user data. Additionally, Kim Dotcom, creator of Megaupload, accused the French authorities of attacking freedom of speech. "Western intelligence services want to access Telegram's private messages," he denounced.