Chris Pavlovski, Rumble CEO, announced that he had left Europ following the detention of Telegram’s CEO by French police, which he believes “threatened” the video-sharing site.
Rumble CEO, a YouTube alternative that advertises itself as “immune to cancel culture,” has announced that he has “departed” from Europe in response to the detention of Pavel Durov, the CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Rumble CEO Departs Europe
On Sunday, August 25, Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski, a Canadian national, announced on X that he had just departed from Europe safely.
He alleged that France had “crossed a red line” by arresting Pavel Durov, the head of Telegram, and had “threatened Rumble.” According to Rumble, the French government requested that it eliminate “certain Russian news sources” in November 2022, and the company responded by blocking access to French users. Rumble stated that it would challenge the request legally.
In May, Pavlovski asserted that Russia had blocked Rumble because it “refused to comply with their censorship demands.”
Pavlovski wrote, “We are currently litigating in the French courts and are optimistic about Pavel Durov’s immediate release.”
He refrained from disclosing his current location or the country from which he had departed. Rumble did not promptly address a request for comment.
Rumble is a video-sharing platform with its headquarters in Ontario and Florida. Conspiracy theorists and conservatives favor it due to its more permissive approach to content moderation than the social media titans Google and Meta.
The French judicial police issued a warrant for the arrest of Telegram’s Durov, a Russian-born French citizen, at Paris–Le Bourget Airport on August 24 following a preliminary investigation, according to numerous news outlets.
The police investigation is purportedly concentrated on Telegram’s alleged failure to cooperate with law enforcement and its lack of moderation for offenses on its platform, which include child sexual abuse content, drug trafficking, fraud, and terrorism.
Telegram stated that it adheres to the laws of the European Union and that its moderation is “consistently improving and within industry standards.” It was further noted that Durov “has nothing to conceal and frequently travels throughout Europe.”
It was “absurd” to assert that a platform or its proprietor is responsible for abusing the platform, as almost a billion users use Telegram as a source of “vital information.”
French authorities have yet to issue a public statement regarding Durov’s detention; however, they are anticipated to do so on Monday, August 26.
