President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the French government was not involved in the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov.
"The arrest of Telegram's president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation.
This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide," Macron said.
Durov was detained Saturday night after his private jet arrived in Paris. His arrest took place as part of a probe into a series of charges including complicity in the detaining and sharing of child pornography, complicity in drug trafficking as well as organized crime laundering, the Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The probe was opened "against an unidentified person" and did not specifically target Durov, the prosecutor said.
The tech chief currently remains in policy custody.
In a statement, Telegram said that its CEO — a Russian-born French-Emirati citizen — had "nothing to hide" and that the company abided by EU law.
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The arrest of Durov is an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association. I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications. It lowers not only France, but the world.
@HumblePr0porti0nalGreen2yrs2Y
I’m deeply alarmed. But not surprised. It felt like this was coming. Durov seemed very cognizant of the threat.
A major assault on free speech is well underway
they literally added his name to the list minutes before he landed & after the flight was already inside France
he was neither cognizant or aware of the threat
@HumblePr0porti0nalGreen2yrs2Y
Have you listened to him? He was very aware of the larger threat. Did he know it would be this moment… probably not. But he understood he was very much a target.
@GrizzledSyrupVeteran2yrs2Y
@MacawChloeForward2yrs2Y
Pro-tip: If you live outside of China get a Huawei phone and install the Session app. The Chinese Govt doesn’t share its mass surveillance data with the West. Use that device exclusively for secure comms and nothing else. That’s how you escape western spy clouds. You’re welcome.
Exactly. Furthermore, follow the money. AES256 was adopted and standardized by the US NIST, SHA256 was designed by the NSA, Signal encryption technology was funded by a US government grant, key members of Signal have connections to the US government and big tech.
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