Adrian McRae, an Australian lawmaker and an outspoken ally of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, mentioned Durov’s arrest in France was one other step within the West’s efforts to tighten management over speech and thought.
McRae famous that Durov created a platform with “very good safety controls” that may make it tough for Western intelligence companies to entry the platform by backdoors.
“Pavel’s arrest is a surprising improvement in an more and more clear and deplorable sample during which Western governments and intelligence companies are shifting aggressively towards complete state censorship and management of concepts and opinions, and extra importantly,” The time period ‘freedom of speech’ is quickly turning into a relic of recent Western historical past,” he added.
French media reported late Saturday that Durov was arrested at Paris Le Bourget Airport. The incident occurred as he disembarked from a non-public aircraft mentioned to have arrived from Azerbaijan. In accordance with French media experiences, Durov, who holds French citizenship, is on the nation’s wished listing.
French media reported that the French judiciary believed Durov was concerned within the crime for a wide range of causes, together with Telegram’s refusal to cooperate with the nation’s authorities. Durov may very well be charged with terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud and cash laundering.
French journalist Cyril Amurski mentioned the founding father of Telegram may resist 20 years in jail.
The Russian Embassy in France confirmed that French authorities have thus far refused to cooperate with Durov’s arrest.
