Telegram Founder Durov Says France Wanted Him to Ban Conservatives
So, like, Pavel Durov, you know, the dude who started Telegram? He’s saying the head of France’s foreign intelligence, a guy named Nicolas Lerner, asked him to totally shut down conservative voices in Romania before their election. And get this, Durov said hard no.
Apparently, Russian-born Durov is kinda stuck in France right now. He’s under this judicial supervision thingy, just chilling in this super fancy hotel in Paris, the Crillon. This is all because he’s being formally investigated for some alleged organized crime stuff on Telegram. He said that's where Lerner, who's in charge of the DGSE spy agency, came up to him.
Late Sunday night, Durov put it out there on X. He wrote, "This spring at the Salon des Batailles in the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections. I refused." He even added, "We didn't block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won't start doing it in Europe." That’s a pretty bold statement, huh?
Meanwhile, the mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, surprised everyone by winning the Romanian presidential election on Sunday. He beat George Simion, who’s this far-right nationalist guy who wanted to be all like Donald Trump's politics. I guess that result made some centrist folks in Brussels breathe a little easier. They're worried that people being mad about immigration and how much everything costs might make them support far-right parties and mess up Europe's unity, especially when it comes to Russia.
The French DGSE agency put out a statement saying their people have met with Durov a bunch of times over the years. They said it was "to firmly remind him of his company's responsibilities, and his own personally, in preventing terrorist and child pornography threats." But they totally denied asking him to block accounts related to elections. They "vigorously refutes the allegations that requests to ban accounts related to any electoral process were made on these occasions," they said. So, like, who do you even believe?
Even Elon Musk noticed! He reposted Durov's claim on X. Musk is one of those big shots on the U.S. right who’s been saying European countries are trying to shut down far-right voices. Musk just wrote, "Wow."
Earlier Sunday, Durov had already said some Western government asked him to silence conservative voices before the Romania vote. He said, "Telegram will not restrict the freedoms of Romanian users or block their political channels." And then he put a baguette emoji, which pretty much screams France, right?
The French foreign ministry said they didn't mess with anything like that and told everyone to "exercise responsibility and respect for Romanian democracy."
Remember when Durov got arrested last year? That really got people talking about free speech online. And get this, Musk, who wasn't happy about Durov's arrest, is also being investigated by French prosecutors. They're looking into whether X has, like, algorithmic bias or something. Musk has actually used X to back right-wing parties and stuff in places like Germany and Britain, which makes some people worry about outside countries trying to influence things. It's a whole mess, tbqh.
If you're curious about how to get things done online, maybe you could check out Fiverr? It's pretty cool for finding freelancers for all sorts of stuff.
