As free speech is dealt another devastating blow in France with the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, the Biden administration has responded with barely a shrug. But Americans have good reason to be alarmed about the government of the United States’ oldest ally and longtime ideological partner embracing a totalitarian censorship regime.
Durov was arrested on Saturday just moments after his plane touched down at France’s Le Bourget Airport, about five miles north of Paris. Authorities then held Pavel for 96 hours – the maximum allowed under French law – before charging him on Wednesday with a litany of crimes, including enabling the distribution of child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, and fraud. His bail was set at $5.5 million, and he is not allowed to leave France.
Incredibly, all of the charges against Durov stem from illicit activity allegedly taking place on Telegram that he had no direct knowledge of. As many commentators were quick to point out, the French government’s argument is akin to imprisoning the owner of a car dealership if someone runs over a pedestrian, or locking up a pharmacist if someone abuses prescription drugs.
Durov, 39, is a Russian-born entrepreneur with a long anti-establishment streak. In 2006 he launched VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. When the Russian government sent police to Durov’s house to demand he remove the profiles of opposition politicians, Durov refused to answer the door and posted a photo of a dog wearing a hoodie with the caption, “Official response to the intelligence services to the request to block groups.”
Unsurprisingly, Durov became a top target of the Russian regime and eventually sold his stake in VKontakte. He moved to Dubai, where he founded Telegram, an instant messaging app that offers end-to-end encryption for private communication. The platform has nearly one billion users worldwide.
In reality, Durov’s arrest and looming court battle have nothing to do with illicit activity on Telegram. Facebook and Instagram have been exposed for doing nothing about a vast network of child predators exploiting minors on the app, despite knowing about the problem. Criminals use those platforms to coordinate and execute illegal acts every day. Yet Mark Zuckerberg is still free to flit in and out of Paris whenever he wishes.
The difference is that while Facebook and Instagram have willingly complied with the edicts of the global left’s censorship regime, Telegram has not. Durov has steadfastly refused to turn his platform into another tool for liberal governments to silence free speech and shut down the opposition. As a result, he now faces up to a decade in prison.
As Tucker Carlson pointed out in a post on X, it wasn’t Putin and the Russian regime who arrested Durov “for allowing the public to exercise free speech.” Instead, it was “a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away.”
Durov has become “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies,” Carlson continued. “Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”
As Carlson points out, Durov’s arrest has the potential to reverberate throughout the tech space. The European Union has already charged X owner Elon Musk for refusing to censor speech on his platform. Does he now have reason to fear arrest should he travel to Europe?
For the United States – the first country in the history of the world to inscribe a right to free speech in its founding document – France’s arrest of Durov should be something of a crisis moment. While Western European liberals have for years now been chipping away at freedom of speech in the name of “combatting hate” and “fighting crime,” arresting the CEO of a messaging app and criminally charging him for how some people abuse his platform is a dangerous inflection point.
Yet the Biden administration has remained conspicuously silent on the matter. As Mike Benz, a former Trump State Department official who has now become a leading voice on online censorship, pointed out in an appearance on Carlson’s podcast on Wednesday, the Biden State Department’s involvement in censorship operations elsewhere in the world creates at least some reason to believe that the White House had advance knowledge of the arrest – and perhaps even encouraged it.
Benz also called on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to seek those answers given the alarming precedent the French government has set. “We don’t know if it was participation, approval, or nothing,” Benz said, referring to the potential of the Biden administration’s involvement. “An entity like the House Foreign Affairs Committee, if it was committed to free speech, would be interrogating whether or not there was a U.S. embassy backchannel to French law enforcement or French intelligence or the French government.”
With the House still away on August recess and the November general election now just over two months away, the prospect of a hearing anytime soon seems remote at best.
Nonetheless, Durov’s case – and the reaction of U.S. political leaders to it – is something Americans should pay close attention to. Every Western politician professes to be committed to free speech. But how those leaders respond now that a core member of the Western alliance has imprisoned a principled defender of free speech for refusing to submit to the left’s censorship cabal will be a telling test of that commitment.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
Thank you for covering this story, while orhers are sweeping it under the rug!!
Sounds like something Russia would do not a NATO country we fund. They also want to charge Elon Musk for Twitter X “disinformation”…
It is very important that you presented this information Shane and the idea that it is a matter that should be given close attention is correct. Anyone interested in the defense of freedom speech should appreciate this article
Not a whisper from our media, freedom of the press anyone?
What a great CIA cover story!
Fight, fight, fight!
It’s just a matter of time until we in the United States of America face the same thing. We already get backlash if someone doesn’t agree with us and the media only tells us what they want us to hear from happenings in the nation to politics. Corruption and stupidity on both sides of political parties are fueling the erosion of all of our rights. It really isn’t going to matter if we don’t stop funding every special interest group out thereand foreign aid with our tax money. Our debt is going to put us all dependent on the government and in poverty.
Scary times 🙁
Durov is a Russian-born anti-establishment jerk who belongs in prison.
Shane Harris, the scribbler of this piece is just another pusher of the entitled class narrative. In boot step he just had to fabricate his “Durov became a top target of the Russian regime”, and threw in some nonsense about the Russian movers and shakers wanting the removal of the profiles of opposition politicians. This last toss in makes absolutely no sense as why would an established political power be concerned about inconveniencing their opposition. The reality was the Russian justice system wanted and supplied warrants for information on active criminals. Durov held off and after court negotiations an agreement was made which didn’t destroy the mans Russian outlet nor take over its files but the information contained in the warrants was provided. Negative discourse over all this angered the Durov brothers rightly or wrongly so they moved without hindrance from Russia vowing out of initial ange to “never return”. SInce all this some 6-7 years ago, both brothers have returned many times and indeed if the recently arrested Durov and his still free from Western tyranny brother were smart they would use their still extant Russian citizenship to return to Russia where yes they once had some issues but never faced arrest nor company take over.
Why preening bubble dwelling scribblers continually have to push the government/corporate (meaning fascistic) narrative of everything Russian is bad line is beyond me. This creepy Harris fellah is just another Rachel Maddow without an Adams Apple craving.