What important people of the arrest world say about Pavel Durov #freedurov

On August 23, Pavel Durov was arrested at the Paris airport.

He could face charges related to terrorism, drugs, fraud, money laundering, selling stolen goods, and sexualized crimes against children. All because Durov refuses to moderate content on Telegram. In France, Durov faces up to 20 years in prison.

The arrest of the Telegram founder made headlines this weekend. Many great people commented on the event, and we collected all their quotes in one place.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk supported Pavel Durov by publishing an excerpt from his interview with the hashtag #FreePavel. It has already been viewed 19 million times.

Dmitry Medvedev

He miscalculated. For all our enemies, he is now Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous. Different blood. Definitely not Musk or Zuckerberg (who, by the way, actively cooperates with the FBI).

Tucker Carlson

The journalist who gave an interview to Pavel Durov this year

Pavel Durov fled Russia when the government tried to take control of his Telegram network security. But Putin ultimately did not arrest him for allowing free speech to be exercised publicly.

Anton Gorelkin

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma for Information Policy

And even after the SEC destroyed the project, the US intelligence services did not become the region before Durov’s article and were negotiating with Dubai for his arrest and extradition. The only way to avoid this was to obtain UAE citizenship – but obtaining a French passport a couple of years later became a fatal mistake.

Edward Snowden

Durov’s arrest is a vindication of the fundamental human rights of freedom of speech and association. 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. This is humiliating not only for France but for the entire world.

Vitalik Buterin

The creator of the Ethereum cryptocurrency

I have already criticized Telegram for not taking encryption seriously.

But (given the information we have at the moment: the accusation, the appearance, is that it is simply “unmoderated” and does not reveal people’s data), this looks very bad and worrying for the future of software and freedom of communication in Europe.

Ekaterina Mizulina

I had a lot of questions about the content in Telegram. I always talked about it publicly. But I think this platform is very technological and one of the most advanced in the world. Let’s not forget that Pavel Durov and his team are also the creators of VK. I think our country needs such people and we need to fight for them.

Eldar Murtazin

Lead Analyst at Mobile Research Group

The messenger can function without Durov, that is, Durov’s presence is not necessary for the physical state of Telegram. It should be understood that he is the leader of a team of three famous people who create Telegram. Without him, Telegram helped the person who attracted investments into it. Today, Telegram is unprofitable. Maintaining its work is very, very expensive. There are no government estimates, but this is already below 600-700 million dollars annually. They simply will not earn such money, not even close. In addition, raising money will be extremely difficult. Selling part of the company, which Durov has always opposed, will be almost impossible to change its position.

All this together, of course, will affect the fact that Telegram will look for ways to monetize. They have a premium subscription, and now, I think, for many, perhaps, this will become an easy way to say “thank you.” That is, these finances will provide Telegram with the money for some time.

A rally in support of Durov was held at the French Embassy in Moscow

People continue to carry paper airplanes to the French embassy in Moscow in support of Durov.