Let’s go back in time, when the Media Research Center had a deceitful meltdown over the CEO of a right-wing-beloved social messaging app was arrested. Catheirne Salgado declared in an Aug. 27 post:
The pro-free speech CEO of Rumble and X owner Elon Musk messaged their support for protecting speech, as France arrested a fellow tech leader for refusing to increase censorship on his platform.
French authorities arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Saturday, allegedly for not censoring enough so-called “criminal activity” on his platform, but many have expressed doubt that that is the real reason. Noting the ongoing assault on free speech, both Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski and Musk made numerous posts suggesting that Durov’s arrest is a continuation of an anti-freedom assault from yet another European power.
Pavlovski expressed concern for Durov and vowed to stand up to anti-free speech French authorities. “France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech,” Pavlovski posted on X.
He continued, “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.”
In a separate post, Pavlovski commented, “… France arrests Telegram CEO[.] Free speech is under major assault and I will not stop fighting for it.” For his part, Musk commented, “Very worrying[.]”
Pavlovski hinted that the attack on free speech won’t end with Telegram.
Salgado continued to dance around the issue at hand:
According to Fraceinfo, Durov “was under the threat of a French research warrant issued on the basis of a preliminary investigation by the Obmin, the Minor Office specializing in combating violence against minors under the national director of the French judicial police … [and t]he investigation is now in the hands of the national cyber unit of the gendarmerie and the national anti-fraud office, for suspicions of offences ranging from fraud to drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and the glorification of terrorism” [translated from French to English utilizing a web translator].
[…]France is not the only governmental authority trying to erect an Orwellian censorship apparatus to control the flow of information online, and Telegram is not alone in being targeted. Both X and Rumble have been targeted by European Union authorities too, with demands for increased censorship.
Curiously missing from Salgado’s post was the reason why Durov was arrested. As a real news operation explained:
On Wednesday, French authorities handed preliminary charges to Durov for allowing alleged criminal activity on Telegram and barred him from leaving France pending further investigation. Allegations against Durov include that his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking and that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
The first preliminary charge against him was for “complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group,” a crime that can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and 500,000 euro fine, the prosecutor’s office said.
Preliminary charges under French law mean magistrates have strong reason to believe a crime was committed but allow more time for further investigation.
So Durov was arrested for allowing child porn and sexual abuse, as well as drug trafficking, to proliferate on Telegram. Seems like something any regular human should not want to happen — but Salgado and her fellow free-speech zealots at the MRC app considers child porn to be “protected speech.”
When Durov finally got the message and addressed such blatantly illegal and exploitative conduct on his platform, Salgado returned in a Sept. 24 post to complain that forcing companies to follow the law is somehow “dystopian”:
Big Tech platforms X and Telegram are the latest targets of anti-free speech campaigns by governments consumed with making George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 a reality.
After rehashing complaints about X’s issues in Brazil — which ignored the fact that Musk willingly chose to suspend operations rather than address disinformation on X designed to destabilize the democratically elected government there (though he eventually cooperated, something the MRC never mentioned) — Salgado got around to talking about Durov:
In Europe, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was recently arrested in France, allegedly for not censoring content deemed “illegal” under European Union laws on the encrypted app. Barron’s magazine reported Sept. 23 that Durov had since affirmed Telegram had removed “problematic content” and updated its terms of service and privacy policy.
The update reportedly clarifies that Telegram will share details, including phone numbers and IP addresses, from violative users with government authorities if supposedly “valid legal requests” are made. “‘We won’t let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users,’” Durov reportedly stated.
In effect, both X and Telegram appear to be victims of government censorship crackdowns.
[…]Now, however, both Durov’s Telegram and Musk’s X are planning to comply with Brazil and France’s demands, in yet another totalitarian blow to online free speech.
Again, Salgado failed to disclose that the “free speech” at issue is child porn and drug trafficking, something we thought the law-and-order types at the MRC were opposed to, and she offered no evidence why such content shouldn’t be considered “problematic.”