Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the popular messaging app Telegram, was arrested at a French airport on Saturday. After this, reactions to this arrest started coming from different parts of the world. The owners and CEOs of the world’s big tech companies, including Elon Musk and Edward Snowden, gave their opinion on this and also opposed this arrest.
According to reports, French police have leveled serious charges against Pavel Durov, which if proven true, can result in a maximum punishment of 20 years. His arrest has been made as part of a police investigation, which found that the app failed to perform its moderator role and many criminal activities were found on it.
When did I leave Russia, this was the reason
The news of Pavel Durov’s arrest spread like wildfire across the world. Why not, he is ranked 120th in the list of the world’s richest people. He left Russia in 2014 because the government there was pressuring him to close down a group of opposition parties. Now he lives in Dubai and has citizenship of two countries, which include France and UAE.
Elon Musk also posted
TESLA CEO Elon Musk has posted a post on his X platform (formerly Twitter) reacting to the arrest of Pavel Durov. He has used #FreePavel at the top of the post and then posted a video of more than 1 minute featuring Pavel Durov.
Edward Snowden protested the arrest
Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has posted on the X platform and reacted to this arrest. He said, Pavel Durov’s arrest is an attack on human rights. I am shocked and deeply saddened that Macron is arresting for accessing private communications. This shames not only France, but the world.
American entrepreneur also criticized
American entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan has also criticized this decision of the French government. He said, they want to control other things more than crime.
Questions raised on France
Computer scientist and author Paul Graham posted on the X platform and expressed his opinion on this arrest. He said that it is very difficult to believe that the Telegram CEO has been arrested in a country which is being made a startup hub.