Macron Fires Back at Critics of Telegram CEO Detention
The French leader said politics played no role in the decision to detain Pavel Durov on Saturday
PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron fired back at critics of the detention of Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of messaging app Telegram, saying politics played no role in the decision to take the 39-year-old tech entrepreneur into custody over the weekend.
The move to detain Durov generated criticism on X, the social-media platform owned by Elon Musk, who posted “#FreePavel” and said France was attempting to censor Telegram. France’s decision raises the ante in the fight between governments and the biggest digital companies over the degree to which they can be held responsible for potentially dangerous content online.
“I read false information here about France following the arrest of Pavel Durov,” Macron said Monday in a post on X. “The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”
Police detained Durov at Le Bourget airport north of Paris on Saturday night when his private jet landed after a flight from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. French media reported that he was detained as part of a judicial investigation into whether Telegram is flouting requirements to prevent the spread of child pornography and other illegal content on its platform. French judges prolonged his detention on Sunday night, giving them a total of 96 hours to either bring charges against Durov or release him.
France’s judiciary is one of the country’s most powerful institutions, and its judges and prosecutors are fiercely independent. They have investigated some of the country’s most powerful political figures, including the current justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti; judicial authorities ultimately declined to send him to trial. For years, judges have investigated former President Nicolas Sarkozy for a series of possible crimes. A court convicted him earlier this year of violating campaign-finance laws.
French law requires social-media companies and other online platforms to cooperate with authorities in countering the spread of illegal content. It is mirrored to some extent by the Digital Services Act, the European Union law requiring platforms to prevent such content.
Telegram said it complies with the EU law, while also saying it was “absurd” to hold a platform responsible for those whose abuse it.
“In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights,” Macron said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the Kremlin doesn’t know why Durov was detained and what he’s accused of, and he called for no conclusions to be drawn until Durov is charged, “if he is charged at all.”