PANews reported on August 26 that according to Cointelegraph, after the arrest of Pavel Durov, CEO of the encrypted messaging application Telegram, Chris Pavlovski, founder and CEO of the online video platform Rumble, said that he had "left" Europe. He claimed that France "threatened Rumble" and "crossed the red line" by arresting Telegram's founder Pavel Durov.

In November 2022, Rumble banned French users, claiming that the French government had asked it to remove "certain Russian news sources" and said it would launch a legal challenge. In May, Pavlovski also claimed that Russia banned Rumble because it "refuses to comply with its censorship demands." "We are currently fighting this in the French courts and we want Pavel Durov to be released immediately," Pavlovski wrote. He did not disclose which country he had left or where he is currently. Rumble did not immediately respond to a request for comment.