Elon Musk shared Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s interview, which exposes the US government’s intimidating tactics to peep into the app.
After the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France on Saturday, tech mogul Elon Musk expressed his support for Durov, commending him for defending free speech and resisting government censorship.
Musk has been an advocate for free speech, which was a major factor in his decision to buy Twitter in October 2022.
Industry Leaders Back Durov
Several tech industry leaders have voiced their support for Pavel Durov following his arrest on charges linked to enabling illegal activities on the Telegram messaging platform.
This arrest has led to a sharp drop in Toncoin price, currently down 16.33%, trading at $5.69.
Elon Musk also shared a previous interview of Durov with American journalist Tucker Carlson. In the interview, Durov described how the U.S. Government and FBI used intimidating tactics to try to recruit a Telegram engineer and gain covert access to the messaging app.
According to Durov, officials attempted to persuade the engineer to add open-source tools to Telegram that would grant them a backdoor into the app.
While Musk and other tech leaders have shown their support for Durov, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has remained silent on the issue.
Musk criticized Zuckerberg in response to a tweet questioning why authorities haven’t arrested Zuckerberg for allowing child predator accounts on Instagram. Musk responded by saying:
“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.”
Vitalik Buterin Stands with Durov
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also expressed his support for Durov, stating that he had previously criticized Durov for not taking encryption seriously.
However, Buterin added that the charges against Durov are severe and “looks very bad and worrying for the future of software and comms freedom in Europe.”
A user on platform X pointed out that despite having end-to-end encryption, popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and iMessage still provide backdoor access to governments.
Responding to this, Buterin stated: “This is why we need open source and formal verification of security properties.”
Buterin has been a strong advocate for decentralized technology and has highlighted Ethereum’s efforts to promote decentralization.
Concerns About Government Overreach
Some market analysts believe that Elon Musk’s X and video platform Rumble could be the next targets for government action.
Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble, has announced his decision to leave Europe due to the arrest of Pavel Durov. In a message posted on X, Pavlovski wrote:
“I’m a little late to this, but for good reason — I’ve just safely departed from Europe. France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech. Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release.”
