European censorship, Elon Musk and the Telegram arrest
France’s arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov over the weekend has made the Russian-born entrepreneur a cause célèbre for free speech, but is his detention or exaltation warranted? Hard to know, which speaks to the problem with Europe’s censorship regime. Conservatives in the U.S. are rallying around Mr.
Durov. “Liberté Liberté! Liberté?" Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted. Chris Pavlovski, CEO of the right-wing video platform Rumble, said the arrest “crossed a red line." French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed claims that Mr.
Durov is being politically targeted, but the government has offered few details about the reasons for his arrest. Telegram’s largely hands-off approach to moderating content has made it popular among terrorists as well as genuine political dissidents. Journalists use the app to communicate with sources, though terrorist groups and authoritarian governments also use it to spread propaganda, as Russia has in Ukraine.
Paris prosecutors say Mr. Durov was detained in relation to an investigation into criminal activity on the platform, including child pornography, drug trafficking, money laundering and its refusal to cooperate with law enforcement. Those are serious offenses if true.
But many suspect this is merely a pretext because Europe is also imposing speech controls on other media platforms. France in 2020 sought to require sites to remove hate speech, though most of its law was blocked by the country’s top court. The European Parliament then stepped into the breach with its Digital Services Act, which compels platforms to curb harmful content, including so-called hate speech, disinformation and propaganda.
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