š±š„Elon Musk defends Telegram CEO #PavelDurov after arrest in France: "Dangerous times"
After #elonmusk purchased Twitter and renamed it X, he became a vociferous voice for the First Amendment and a "free speech absolutist."
He quickly dialed back moderation on the popular social media platform, allowing all kinds of content to flourish, some of it hateful, some of it controversial, some of it misinformation, but all of it largely unfettered.
"Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship," Musk once said.
He reminded his millions of followers of this today after French police arrested Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, near Paris on Saturday.
Police told local media they are investigating criminal offenses ā including fraud, drug trafficking, and organized crime ā on Telegram. It comes after some European nations have accused Telegram of failing to moderate criminal content.
That sort of message resonates with Musk, who, in a series of posts since Durov's arrest, criticized the move as a violation of free speech.
LibertƩ LibertƩ! LibertƩ?" he wrote in one post. "Dangerous times," he wrote in another post.
Musk added a "FreePavel" hashtag when he shared a video of Durov praising Musk and his pro-free-speech outlook during an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
"It is vital to the support of free speech that you forward X posts to people you know, especially in censorship-heavy countries," Musk wrote on X on Sunday.
He also reposted a tweet from Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble, a right-wing rival to YouTube. Pavlovski said in a post on Sunday that France "crossed a red line" with Durov's arrest.
