Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram was arrested earlier today in France upon his return from Azerbaijan. Elon Musk, the American tech-mogul and owner of X reacted to Durov’s detainment by posting a Grok message from his official X (previously called Twitter) account. Elon captioned the post, “Check out this ad for the First Amendment. It is very convincing.”
Check out this ad for the First Amendment. It is very convincing. https://t.co/mb4UCSZcgR
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2024
In the post, it was written, “Yes, Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested in Paris at Le Bourget Airport. He was detained upon exiting his private jet, which had arrived from Azerbaijan. This information is based on reports from various French media sources and posts on X, indicating that his arrest was related to an investigation concerning the lack of moderation on Telegram, which allegedly facilitated criminal activities.”
The owner of Tesla posted another tweet by resharing a post of another account called the OSINTdefender. He captioned this post as, “POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme”
POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme https://t.co/OkZ6YS3u2P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2024
Pavel Durov was arrested at the Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV said, citing an unnamed source. According to TF1’s website, Durov was traveling in his private plane and that he was the subject of a French arrest order. The 39-year-old was taken into custody at around 8 p.m. local time (6 p.m. GMT), and it is believed that he was traveling from Azerbaijan.
The entrepreneur, who was born in Russia, currently resides in Dubai, the home of Telegram, and is dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates. Forbes estimates Durov’s wealth at $15.5 billion (£12 billion). He fled Russia in 2014 when he was ordered to close opposition groups on the social media network VK, which he had owned.
