French authorities arrested Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of Telegram, at a Paris airport. They now demand he appear in court over alleged offenses related to his messaging app. This heavy-handed action reflects the growing liberal crackdown on digital freedom.

Sources told AFP that police detained Franco-Russian tech billionaire Pavel Durov at Le Bourget airport. French investigators issued the arrest warrant as part of a probe into claims of fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, promoting terrorism, and cyberbullying. Durov is now set to appear in court.

This aggressive move shows how far liberal authorities will go to smear a digital innovator who refuses to bow to their control.

The Guardian reports,

Durov is accused of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of his platform and was stopped after arriving in Paris from Baku on his private jet on Saturday night. “Enough of Telegram’s impunity,” said one investigator who expressed surprise that Durov flew to Paris knowing he was a wanted man.

Russian authorities have accused France of “refusing to cooperate”. The Russian embassy in Paris has asked for access to Durov and said France had so far “avoided engagement” on the situation.

Durov left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with Kremlin demands to shut down opposition groups on the VK social network that he founded when he was 22. He left VK after a dispute with its Kremlin-linked owners and turned his focus to Telegram, the app he founded with his brother Nikolai in 2013.

Telegram started out like any other messaging app but quickly evolved into a robust social network. Unlike its competitors, Telegram allows users not just to chat one-on-one but to join massive groups of up to 200,000 people.

Users can also create broadcast channels to share their messages widely and openly discuss ideas—something that clearly makes liberal governments uncomfortable.

Writing on X after the arrest, the rightwing US commentator and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson described Durov as “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies”.

In an interview with Carlson earlier this year, Durov said the app should remain a “neutral platform” and not “a player in geopolitics”.

In the interview, Durov said he got the idea to launch an encrypted messaging app after coming under pressure from the Russian government when working at VK.

He said users “love the independence” of the Telegram app. “They also love the privacy, the freedom, [there are] a lot of reasons why somebody would switch to Telegram,” he told Carlson.

Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member,… https://t.co/F83E9GbNHC

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2024

Pavel Durov’s arrest is more than a legal issue; it’s a direct attack on free speech. Liberal governments are using this as an excuse to crack down on platforms that defy their control. Telegram’s growth and its role in open communication threaten their agenda. This aggressive move highlights their intolerance for dissent.

The future of digital freedom is at stake.