How Durov's arrest demonstrates the degradation of freedom of speech in the West
https://reclaimthenet.org/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-arrest-france
"Musk Should Be Nervous" - Deep State Lackey Admits Real Target Following Telegram Founder's Arrest
Russia is demanding answers following the arrest Pavel Durov, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram. He was detained by French authorities at the Bourget airport outside of Paris Saturday evening after arriving in his private jet.
The Russian embassy in Paris has demanded that the French government explain itself, and has so far said that French authorities are being uncooperative. The latest reports say Durov is expected to appear before a judge Sunday evening.
The embassy said of the 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire that "as soon as the news of Durov’s arrest broke, we immediately addressed the French authorities for clarification on the reasons for it and demanded that they ensure the protection of his rights and provide consular access to him."
He not only has Russian citizenship by virtue of his birth there, but also holds dual citizenship in France and the UAE.
Russian diplomats say there has been no reply from Paris: "The French side has so far been avoiding cooperation on this issue," a statement said. Russian lawmakers have gone so far as to say he is now a "political prisoner".
Russian member of parliament Maria Butina said on Sunday, "Pavel Durov is a political prisoner - a victim of a witch-hunt by the West.
"The arrest of Pavel Durov means there is no freedom of speech - it means that freedom of speech in Europe is dead," she continued. "Now basically they have a hostage and they will try to blackmail Russia, they will try to blackmail all the users of Telegram and not only try to get control but also try to block the network here in Russia."
Additionally, deputy speaker of Russian parliament, Vladislav Davankov, described that the tech entrepreneur's arrest "could be politically motivated and used to gain access to the personal information of Telegram users."
And Dmitry Medvedev, who is the deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said Durov is being targeted because he's Russian. "He miscalculated," Medvedev said. "For all our common enemies now, he is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous." Medvedev asserted, "Durov should finally realize that one cannot chose one's the fatherland."
One interesting angle is that the app, well-known for being highly secure as it provides end-to-end encryption, is widely used among the Russian military, as well as the common population.
Durov was detained by the National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF), over the alleged facilitation of various crimes including terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and fraud. "On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offences and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate," a source told TF1 TV.
The arrest was characterized by Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom as part of the "crackdown against free speech."
Other prominent figures have voiced alarm over what this means for free speech, or even the question of who is next to be targeted by Western governments...
And Elon Musk has been highlighting the implications of Durov's arrest through Sunday...
"Liberté Liberté! Liberté?" Musk added in another post. "Dangerous times."
Musk added a "FreePavel" hashtag when he shared a video of Durov praising Musk and his pro-free-speech outlook during an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
"It is vital to the support of free speech that you forward X posts to people you know, especially in censorship-heavy countries," Musk wrote on X on Sunday.
And in case you wondered, none other than deep state bagman Alexander Vindman makes it clear who the real target is...
There are some reports saying that given the potential charges stacked against him, Durov could possibly be facing up to 20 years in prison. But there still remains many unknowns, as well as confusion, surrounding his detention.
Edward Snowden has also weighed in...
Ironically, back in 2014 Durov left Russia after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he has since sold. He now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based.
From RT (Russian)
"The West is not becoming totalitarian - it is": how Durov's arrest demonstrates the degradation of freedom of speech in the West
Why Durov's arrest speaks of the degradation of institutions of free speech in the West
26 August 2024,
Roman Shimaev, Anastasia Belousova
According to experts interviewed by RT, the collective West has taken a course to combat dissent and any manifestations of freedom of speech, as indicated by the detention of Pavel Durov in France. According to analysts, the world community is once again witnessing the double standards of the West, which is trying to take control of an independent Internet platform. They assume that the co-founder of Telegram will be persuaded to cooperate with the special services. The Paris prosecutor's office told RT that on Monday, August 26, they will publish a press release on the topic of the businessman's detention.
Pavel Durov
globallookpress.com
On Saturday evening, August 24, one of the founders of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, was detained at Le Bourget Airport in Paris. According to the French TV channel TF1, the 39-year-old businessman, who holds French citizenship, was detained after arriving from Azerbaijan on a private jet.
Durov was included on the list of wanted persons in France. An arrest warrant was issued by the juvenile affairs agency of the National Directorate of the Judicial Police as part of a preliminary investigation.
It is noted that the management of the Telegram messenger refused to moderate the platform, as well as to cooperate with French law enforcement agencies, which made its CEO, Pavel Durov, an accomplice to drug trafficking, crimes against children, and fraud. He faces 20 years in prison.
Durov's arrest is fully consistent with the spirit and principles of the European Union's Digital Services Act, according to which the operator of a social network or internet platform is responsible for any content posted, TASS writes, citing a source in Brussels' legal circles. At the same time, the document did not imply "personal or criminal liability."
Commenting on the situation, the Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova stated that those who initiated Durov’s arrest wanted to close Telegram, since there one can “learn the truth about events happening in the world.”
“This is yet another clear manifestation of double standards regarding fundamental human rights on the part of a number of states that extol democracy but in fact seek to trample it,” she said.
The editor-in-chief of the RT TV channel and the media group "Russia Today" Margarita Simonyan, against the backdrop of Durov's arrest, advised everyone to delete sensitive correspondence on Telegram: "Durov was locked up to take away the keys. And he will give them back."
Lawyers interviewed by RT also believe that Pavel Durov will be urged to cooperate with Western intelligence agencies.
"Such people are not arrested once or twice, and then all charges are dropped. It costs too much. If the French authorities have already decided to arrest and imprison a billionaire, they will continue this game," said civil and international law specialist Maria Yarmush.
In turn, the head of the Law and Order Center in Moscow and the Moscow Region, Alexander Khaminsky, noted that the accusations appearing in the media “can be similarly brought against manufacturers of smartphones, which, in addition to ordinary people, are also used by criminals.”
The main interested party in this process is the US authorities, who want to destroy the messenger, Yarmush added.
"They have been hunting for the founder of Telegram for a long time. And the first reason he ended up on such a wanted list is his refusal to provide access to accounts and encryption keys to user accounts," the expert emphasized.
The Paris prosecutor's office told RT that they plan to issue a press release on Monday, August 26. As French media reported, Durov could be charged with terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, and child pornography, among other things.
French police
Gettyimages.ru
© MarioGuti
"The West's Fight Against Dissent"
According to analysts, the West is trying to take control of any manifestation of free speech and those who do not obey its rules.
"The whole world has once again seen the double standards of the West. In their understanding, freedom of speech should have nothing to do with criticism of the Western world and the ability to express one's own opinion regarding the policies of certain countries. On Durov's platform, this was allowed, which the West, first and foremost, did not like," political scientist Yevgeny Mikhailov said in an interview with RT.
He recalled that the Telegram messenger is predominantly developed in Eurasia and the countries of the Global South, so Durov’s arrest can be considered a kind of declaration of war on that part of the world that did not want to live by the rules of control from the West.
The actions of the French authorities are in line with the policy of the collective West, which has unleashed a fight against dissent, noted Dmitry Yevstafyev, a professor at the HSE Media Institute and a candidate of political sciences. According to him, Durov's cooperation with Western intelligence agencies did not protect him from criminal prosecution.
"Durov should not be considered some kind of fighter for freedom of speech there, he fully cooperated with Western intelligence services and government agencies, but nevertheless there was a certain freedom on his platform. But at some point this intellectual freedom began to pose a threat to the Western, radical globalist consensus," said the RT source.
Pavel Durov
Gettyimages.ru
According to Vladimir Olenchenko, a research fellow at the Center for European Studies at the IMEMO RAS, international non-governmental organizations should speak out in support of the speedy release of Pavel Durov, since in the future the authorities of Western countries will begin to oppress them as well.
When it comes to the interests of the collective West, as well as threats against it, there has never been and never will be any talk of freedom, political scientist, publicist, and associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Leonid Krutakov said in a commentary to RT, emphasizing that it is necessary to forget about some world of rules and international laws.
"The West is not becoming totalitarian - it was totalitarian. We just have a wrong understanding of the term 'freedom of speech'. For them, it was not freedom of speech - for them, it was freedom to disseminate information," the RT source explained.
Double standards and human rights
Meanwhile, after the arrest of the co-founder of Telegram, the French authorities are not responding to requests from the Russian side to provide access to the Russian native.
"After the news of Pavel Durov's detention appeared in the media, we immediately asked the French authorities for clarification on the reasons and demanded that his rights be protected and that he be granted consular access. As of today, the French side has so far avoided cooperation on this issue," the Russian Embassy in Paris said in a statement.
In a comment to RT, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, emphasized that the Russian side will do everything possible and defend Durov’s rights, despite his French citizenship.
"For France, this is a citizen of their country. And this is the first thing they proceed from. In this case, we have repeatedly seen similar situations when they cling to the fact that a person has received citizenship of their country, which, by the way, many request as a letter of protection. And then this letter of protection becomes their sword of Damocles," Zakharova noted.
Russian parliamentarians expressed hope that the situation surrounding Pavel Durov will open the eyes of the world and Russian citizens wishing to leave the country to the West's illegal actions.
“The European fascist mugs have apparently decided to fill the concept of ‘freedom of speech’ with a new meaning: whatever is not controlled by the Brussels regional committee must be destroyed and banned,” said State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov .
According to Dmitry Belik , a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs , Durov’s arrest is a clear step in the encroachment not only on freedom of speech, but also on freedom in principle, which is what the collective West has decided to demonstrate to the entire world.
Also on the topic
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left a maximum security British prison where he spent five years, WikiLeaks has announced....
"The pretext, of course, is excellent: if Durov was really arrested because his invention was used by criminals, then perhaps the manufacturers of Renault cars should be sent to prison - after all, they were probably used by robbers or drug dealers. And the owners of wineries that produce French champagne - bottles from it could certainly have been used as a weapon of crime? It is difficult to understand the logic of the French justice system, but one thing can be said: the United States has long dominated France, and the motives for Durov's arrest should be sought there, across the ocean," added State Duma deputy and first deputy chairman of the Defense Committee Alexei Zhuravlev .
Assange, Durov... Musk?
According to analysts, the situation around Pavel Durov may develop according to a scenario similar to the Julian Assange case. In June 2024, the WikiLeaks founder left a maximum security British prison after five years in prison. The journalist, thanks to whom materials about corruption and human rights violations were published, was released only after pleading guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disseminate classified information.
“Assange admitted his guilt, they beat him up, turned him into a rag and showed everyone else, the whole world: guys, look what we will do to anyone who tries to encroach on our rights,” said Leonid Krutakov.
As former US Army officer Scott Bennett noted in a commentary to RT, the French authorities may apply the same methods to the Telegram co-founder that the British used against the WikiLeaks founder. In his opinion, NATO countries "have become the new Gestapo" - they pursue the goal of "suppressing, destroying and burying any person or organization that seeks to shed the light of truth on the world or to endow humanity with knowledge."
“They will deprive him of the bare necessities, including water and a blanket, and will psychologically torture him until he breaks and agrees to give them everything concerning VK and Telegram,” the RT source said.
Julian Assange / Pavel Durov / Elon Musk
AP
© Eugene Hoshiko / Globalllookpress.com / Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto, Gettyimages.com
The arrest of 39-year-old Durov humiliates not only France, but the entire world, Edward Snowden stated. In his opinion, this is an attack on fundamental human rights.
"I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has stooped to the level of hostage-taking as a means of gaining access to private communications," he added.
Elon Musk, who owns the social network X, may be the next person to be detained in a Western country, according to Alexei Pushkov, head of the Federation Council's Information Policy Committee.
"A liberal dictatorship does not tolerate individuals who claim freedom and do not play by its rules. Elon Musk, get ready," he wrote.
The co-founder of Telegram has been locked up in jail by a Western country that is an ally of the Joe Biden administration and an active member of NATO, journalist Tucker Carlson has stated . In his opinion, the incident will serve as a warning to all platform owners who do not want to censor the truth.
Durov's biggest crime was his refusal to bend over backwards to the Western powers the way Meta*, which owns the social networks Facebook* and Instagram*, did, independent political scientist from Sweden Greg Simons told RT .
At the same time, according to blogger and journalist Alex Reporterfai, Mark Zuckerberg took a different path and bowed to the political interests of the United States.
“He opened up access to his technologies, encryption, and, it must be said, allowed his platforms to suppress opposition voices in elections, and also, in fact, contributed to the destruction of the reputation of Donald Trump, whom he banned,” the RT source emphasized.
The United States is behind the arrest of Pavel Durov, his former press secretary Georgy Lobushkin is sure. He noted in a comment to RT that Telegram complied with the laws of all countries where it is present and complied with the requirements of sanctions legislation.
"The reason (for the arrest. — RT ) is most likely much deeper. I think it is not on the territory of the European Union, not on the territory of France. Most likely, this is an attack from the United States, which has been hunting Durov for a long time, and Durov has always spoken about this. And he said, for example, in an interview with Tucker Carlson that pressure is being put on him and his employees, or at least there is some kind of surveillance, about the FBI. I think the roots of the reasons are there," concluded the RT interlocutor.
* The organization was recognized as extremist and banned in Russia by the decision of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow dated March 21, 2022.
https://www.rt.com/news/603055-telegram-durov-eu-censorship/
Pavel Durov on how US agencies tried to gain a backdoor to Telegram.
Free speech has never extended to violence and criminality.
Musk's fanboys are to young to understand this.
I am a FREE SPEECH absolutist! All the censorship out there is pure evil!
Without freedom of speech and expression, there is nothing but a 'boot stamping on your face forever', total tyranny and slavery! Free speech must be protected and preserved at all costs!
citizensforfreespeech.org
thefire.org
Can't say this often enough! THESE WEF MONSTERS RUNNING THE WORLD NEED TO BE DEPOPULATED OFF THE PLANET!
It's always since the dawn of history, been about using knowledge for power and control by the psycho portion of the human population that learned how to manipulate 'normies' to obey them in their power-mad power trips.
KEEP FIGHTING! All the perps who pushed this greatest crime against humanity, all the way down to the local level, must get their comeuppances!
THEY can't get rid of the 'useless eaters' fast enough! Mistakes were not made, it was always malice aforethought.
In these modern times, this evil has become TECHNOCRACY, the vilest threat to the existence of all life on earth since forever!
EW! GROSS! HELL NO! https://www.technocracy.news
NOT MY BRAIN/MIND! NOT MY BODY! NO WAY, NO HOW, NOT PLAYING YOUR AI QUANTUM STUPID-ASS VIDEO GAMES! I AM LIVING IN THE REAL WORLD CREATING ART AND PERFORMANCES!
The more I learn about this stuff, the more sickened, nauseated and horrified I get, and I wonder what kind of inhuman psychopath loonies make this crap and want to use it!?
THIS IS PURE SATANIC EVIL! IT IS MEANT TO DESTROY BILLIONS OF YEARS OF CREATION IN THE ATTEMPT OF TOTAL SLAVERY CONTROL BY POWER-MAD PSYCHOS!
I DO NOT COMPLY! NEVER HAVE, NEVER WILL! May more and more wake up and resist and cultivate their health.
There is a fate worse than death - I would rather die than be a robotized slave of technocratic overlords! This is my hill to die on!
I have a landline and a wired laptop and a wired monitor screen, all the tech anyone should ever want or need. I never had and refuse to ever have one of those infernal mobile devices that are designed to enslave you.
My loathing of AI and all things NANO and digital knows no bounds!
SCREW THE FEAR FAKERY! NO TRUSTING THE WEF RULING CLASS EVER!
Reiterating for the sake of newbies and to support this post.
I have no fear of 'germs' or 'viruses'. One of the best places to go for reality: https://virustruth.net
I try to live without fear! Fear is the mind-killer!
PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS BY POWERFUL, WEALTHY CRIMINALS WITH EVIL INTENT CAN CAUSE ALL KINDS OF HAVOC! QUESTION EVERYTHING!
And these, the criminals behind the NAC and all the other schemes will use hypochondria hysteria and 'climate' hysteria to propagandize the gullible 'sheeple' into complying with TOTAL ENSLAVEMENT which is what this is really about!
A vast majority of so-called leaders and Public 'Serpents' around the world have been bribed, blackmailed/coerced into serving the interests of their technocratic New World Ordure parasite masters and not We the People.
GREED is behind every evil assailing us in the world!
The demonic despots of Davos at it again! They are behind everything bad! At it for decades and cronies like The Rothschilds and the Black Nobility and The Khazarian Mafia have been plotting planetary domination for centuries! ALL BECAUSE OF AVARICE!
We the People must try harder to live by The Golden Rule, doing so would solve most problems!
AUTISM TSUNAMI/SADS/TURBO CANCER/BIZARRE TERMINAL ILLNESSES: More tragic victims of the ruling parasite genocidal enslavement agenda, sacrificed on the altar of psychopathic greed and hatred of humanity.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS AN EVEN WORSE FRAUD THAN THE PLANSCAMDEMIC! SO-CALLED GREEN TECH IS A GIGANTIC SCAM! MINING AND MANUFACTURING 'GREEN' PRODUCTS NEEDS COAL, GAS AND OIL AND MINING RARE MINERALS IS MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY TOXIC AND DESTRUCTIVE THAN LEGACY PRODUCTS. SCREW YOUR DAMNED AGENDA! https://climateviewer.com
Migrant/Entrant Invasion/Infrastructure Attacks - all part of the destructive plot to achieve total slavery!
Apoplectic livid rage hardly describes the intensity of emotions I have had and am having over what these malignant globalists are perpetrating!
There is no noxious crime that the evildoers desiring to lord it over us won't commit to maintain their stranglehold on power. A groundswell critical mass resistance to their murderous enslavement plans is needed urgently!
Creative performing arts, fine arts and literary arts are the best part of being human and the thing the globalist predator technocrat megalomaniac total slavery control freaks most want to destroy.
Too many 'sheeple' are brainwashed to blindly obey authority figures on the media or in daily life in corrupt system ruled by control freak psychopaths who use propaganda lies to enslave their subjects and they are dumbed down to be obedient by 'education' institutions. Fortunately I was raised to question everything. This transcends party lines. We need a system that punishes psychopaths and rewards compassion and sharing, we need a system that actually follows The Constitution in reality.
Kudos to Pavel Durov's and Robin Westenra's heroic efforts and success in the struggle. We the People must always be aware of the existential threats lurking behind this fight!
How I stick my thumb in the eyes of the grotesque billionaire bastards pushing their enslavement agenda and how I embrace being fully human.
Fighting the globalist predator technocrat psychopath megalomaniac TOTAL SLAVERY AGENDA one performance at a time!
Amazing Amy: Eccentric Yoga Entertainer!
As an entertainer, I have been devastated and practically destroyed by the closure of all performance venues and then when they reopened, because MY BODY, MY CHOICE - being made a total untermenschen pariah outcast in NAZI NIGHTMARE LAWLESS 'SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS' JAB CROW APARTHEID/DISCRIMINATION/SEGREGATION HELL NYC WHERE THE MAD/DRUNK WITH POWER TYRANT POLS DOUBLE DOWN ON THEIR ILLEGAL MANDATES. I am trapped here with zero financial resources to leave or do anything else about this 'wish I were dead' endless misery life has become. The tragic irony is that my SPREAD THE YOGA LOVE performances are all about health, miraculously overcoming age (69) and injury to achieve feats of flexibility few can attain at any age. So BIG PHARMA who wants to addict every person on the planet to their toxic products hate people like me who prove that we do not need them if we eat healthy organic food and exercise daily!
https://www.reverbnation.com/artist/amazingamycontortionistuniqueyogadancer
I try and live and embody the creative performing artistic world and life I so fervently want existence to be about.
They can stick their f*cking damned NANO, Digital IDs, AI, jabs and chips up their asses where the sun don't shine!
All manner of lies and propaganda spew forth from the upper echelons in governments worldwide who are completely intertwined with the global criminal ruling class that wants to commit the worst atrocities imaginable and suffer no consequences. And their corruption slithers down the chain of command creating petty tyrants everywhere.
We the People are facing HORRIFYING TECHNOCRATIC PSYCHOPATHY TO DESTROY HUMANITY AND ALL NATURAL LIFE!
It was NEVER about health! The Powers That Should Not Be were ALWAYS about they want you DEAD or a SLAVE! This is a painful truth to accept but we the people must wake up and fight back!
We must never lose sight of the larger picture of the vile malignance we are fighting against.
There is an insidious global ruling class plot to enslave all life on earth behind all the madness and suffering inflicted on We the People.
How to fight back against this TOTAL SLAVERY!
RESIST! DO NOT COMPLY! DITCH THE DAMNED 'SMART' PHONES AND THE DAMNED QR CODES AND GO BACK TO LANDLINES OR FLIP PHONES AND USE CASH AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! INSIST ON CASH! CBDC IS TOTAL SLAVERY!
Other than getting rid of nuclear weapons which I support 100% the rest of the anti-nuclear peace movement and CLIMATE CRISIS propaganda is parroting UN utter GARBAGE, a complete surrender to the ENSLAVEMENT AGENDA by the diabolical despots of Davos - ruling class criminals who lust for total power and control and all of whom should be tried and jailed for life and their malign organizations dismantled: the UN, the WEF, the IMF, the WHO, the BIS, NATO, Blackrock, Vanguard, The Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, The Bilderbergers, the CFR et al.
There is an evil predator globalist technocratic elite agenda of eugenics/depopulation/genocide using bioweapon poison jabs, war, geoengineering, EMF radiation, starvation and economic collapse - THE GREAT RESET/AGENDA 2030/4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION to get rid of billions of 'useless eaters' and to use nano tech to turn the survivors into ROBOTIZED COMPLIANT SLAVES! WAKE UP AND RESIST! DO NOT COMPLY! These are psychopath megalomaniacs who want to play god by turning all life into digitized metaverse mechanistic synthetic biology to be manipulated by their AI algorithms. A more demonic sickening idea is nearly impossible to imagine!