In another aggressive attack on freedom of speech, Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested in France yesterday for alleged offenses related to his messaging app.
The reason for his arrest is being purposefully associated with horrible crimes such as violence against minors, fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and organized crime, but the true crime that Pavel Durov seems to be charged with is not allowing governments access or control.
Unidentified sources are reporting that the investigation is focused on a lack of ‘moderators.’
Pavel Durov’s family escaped communist Russia with his family to Italy when he was a young boy. He and his brother developed a love for freedom of speech which eventually led to the development of the Telegram, with desirable strong encryption features, which now has almost one billion users.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Pavel and his family returned to Russia, but when Russia demanded access to users on Telegram, Pavel and his brother fled. Together they looked to base their company in the USA, but didn’t feel comfortable when the FBI demanded to have access to the user database.
He tells his story here:
France is leading the way in attacking freedom of speech. Earlier this month, the European Union’s Digital Commissioner, Thierry Breton, wrote a threatening letter to X platform owner Elon Musk on Monday, before the highly anticipated Donald Trump interview.
In his letter, Breton threatened that the EU would take action against X if Elon didn’t ‘moderate’ their platform according to their standards.
This threat is bigger than politics and freedom of speech. It is a direct threat to Christians.
These unabashed attempts to impose censorship is reflective of what Christians experience in China. Christian beliefs are often categorized in China as “misinformation” and “harmful.”
The Christian proclamation of Jesus being the Son of God, born of a virgin mother, and raised from the dead is considered ‘misinformation’ in China and by many communities. Communist nations use science to prove the Christian faith ‘wrong,’ showing that virgin women do not have babies and dead men do not raise from the dead.
Just as the EU is arguing that lack of “moderation” is dangerous to the public, so too does China when highlighting the dangers of Christianity. The Bible’s teachings on several subjects can be considered hateful and harmful.
Because of the background and nature of the security of Telegram, BTJ is an active user and disperses information on Telegram which is considered by the CCP as dangerous.
Hello brothers!
My name is Andrei Segheci and I am a new born christian from Romania. I am not sure that what you stand for in this article is the truth.
You have to ask at least 2 questions:
1) Why Pavel Durov met with the criminal dictator Vladimir Putin recently in Baku, Azerbaijean ?
Of course all of us know that Durov ”is persecuted ” by Russia and with all that the russian army uses intensively Telegram services.
2) Why Pavel Durov went on purpose in Paris, ”for a dinner” since he knew that an investigation was started against him since July 2024?
Of couse, he is a french citizen and he knows that France never extradite its citizens. Maybe he wanted to protect himself from some who asked him to ”cooperate” with them!
Never forget the words of our beloved Lord Jesus : ”only the truth makes us free”!
thank you for your comment.
It’s important for missionaries working in closed countries to keep open dialog about situations that concern secure communications. The goal of this article isn’t to debate conjecture but to share information. Are there secret meetings and alterior motives? Most like, but the important facts regarding Telegram for closed countries are:
1. Telegram is blocked in China. This is a good sign for security. If China had a back door, or if Russia had a back door, China would allow the app. It doesn’t.
2. The EU in general and France specifically, have shown increasing aggression against freedom of speech and expression on social media and communication apps.
3. The language that France is using for this arrest including terms like misinformation, inciting hate, and endangering public safety is similar to what has been levied against the platforms X, Gab, and Parler and mimics the language of Chinese laws. It’s why we started DingDash.com
4. France’s charges of human trafficking, drug dealing, etc are almost identical to the charges the United States used against Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road Market.
5. Frances use of the term ‘moderation’ is the common verbage used by those supressing speech and communication.
In our shared spiritual freedom, Christians celebrate a long history of secret communication with fellow believers. A quick visit to the first churches that the Apostle Paul planted in Ephesus still have the ancient carvings used to secretly communicate illegal house meetings. We maintain that tradition today in China, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Somalia. Using Telegram has played a small role in that and compells us to inform others of the fluid and changing situation.