Editor
Macron has been a Telegram person for the reason that early days of his first presidential marketing campaign. Nearly a decade later, the app stays extensively utilized by each cupboard members and political officers of all ranks and events, notably inside pro-Macron circles.
Durov, the Russian-born founder and CEO of Telegram, was unexpectedly arrested upon touchdown in France Saturday evening. The exact cause for his arrest has not but been communicated, however Durov’s custody has been prolonged.
The founder’s arrest has been criticized by self-proclaimed free speech advocates, together with X and Tesla proprietor Elon Musk, in addition to Russian officers, together with Senator Alexei Pushkov. On his personal Telegram channel, Pushkov referred to as France a “liberal dictatorship” that “doesn’t tolerate people who declare freedom.”
In a publish on X on Monday, Macron pushed again towards these accusations. Durov’s arrest was “on no account a political choice,” he stated. “France is deeply dedicated to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will stay so.”
Durov’s arrest happened as a part of a probe right into a sequence of fees together with complicity within the detaining and sharing of kid pornography, complicity in drug trafficking in addition to organized crime laundering, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace stated in a press release. The probe was opened “towards an unidentified particular person” and didn’t particularly goal Durov.
According to a French justice official not engaged on the case however conversant in its background, Telegram had drawn frustration in France on account of its reluctance to cooperate with authorities. “They have pissed off folks with their refusal to provide solutions in soiled information,” stated the official, who was granted anonymity to talk candidly.
