thefreeonline 26 Aug, 2024 07:39 via HomeWorld News
Chris Pavlovski’s oprn video hosting platform Rumble has been embroiled in a long-running legal battle with the French authorities
France has crossed all boundaries by arresting Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of video-sharing platform Rumble, has said, adding that he left Europe after the news broke.
Durov was taken into custody at a Paris airport on Saturday evening after arriving from Azerbaijan by private jet. While the French authorities have yet to publicly announce the reason for detaining the Russian tech mogul, reports indicate that the charges are related to his alleged complicity in drug trafficking, pedophilia offenses, fraud, as well as failure to address criminal activity on the messenger.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski.
Telegram has denied any wrongdoing, adding that it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Pavlovski said he had “safely departed from Europe” in the aftermath of Durov’s arrest. He slammed the move by France, saying it “crossed a red line,” while noting that the country had already threatened Rumble.
”Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release,” he added.
Pavlovski’s platform, which has positioned itself as a free speech alternative to YouTube, has been embroiled in its own legal battle with the French authorities. It began in November 2022 after officials in Paris banned Rumble over its refusal to comply with a request to remove Russian media accounts blocked in the EU due to sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.
Though Durov’s arrest occurred in France, a number of opinion leaders, including American entrepreneur David Sacks, have suggested that the US was behind the move.
In April, Sacks also predicted that Washington could go after Telegram, X, and eventually Rumble, given that the US passed a law that would ban the video-sharing platform TikTok if its Chinese-based developer, ByteDance, refused to sell it within 12 months.
Rumble now BLOCKED in FRANCE 26 Aug 24
Durov’s arrest ‘in spirit of EU’s Digital Services Act’ – TASS source
The regulation says that tech companies are responsible for policing content on their platform –
Pavel Durov – Social media
Durov arrest condemns 950 million users
The arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France is in line with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which stipulates that service providers are responsible for the content shared on their platforms, TASS reported on Sunday, citing a source in the bloc’s legal system.
The Russian tech entrepreneur – who is also a citizen of France, the UAE, and St. Kitts and Nevis – was detained upon landing in Paris-Le Bourget Airport on Saturday. He is reportedly being accused of failing to curb criminal activities on his platform.
Durov’s arrest is “fully in line with the spirit and the principles” of DSA, the TASS source said. “If the operator wants to avoid penalties, it must automatically take down the content banned by the European regulator.
The DSA “does not contain personal or criminal liability,”the source added,“which means that the prosecution in France went much further.” Durov’s legal team would face “additional difficulties,” since the allegations against him could be tied to the issue of French national security and that it would be harder to arrange a public campaign given his Russian citizenship.
Durov left Russia in the mid-2010s over a disagreement with the government and has since mostly lived in the UAE. In 2021, he acquired French and Emirati citizenship.
He insisted that it is his “principled position” to keep user data private and that he “would rather be free than take orders from anyone.” In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson in April, Durov said he faced pressure from the US government to install a surveillance “backdoor,” which he refused to do.
Telegram issued a statement on Sunday, saying its content-moderation policies were “within industry standards.”
Multiple public figures in Russia and abroad have condemned Durov’s arrest, describing it as an attack on freedom of speech and the free flow of information. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the consulate in Paris has demanded access to Durov.an share this story on social media:
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