X owner Elon Musk has sprung to the defense of the founder of controversial messaging app Telegram, calling for the 39-year-old to be released from French custody.
The spectacular arrest of Pavel Durov on the tarmac of Paris’s Le Bourget airport just after his private jet touched down on Saturday elicited an intense debate over where exactly the boundaries of protected free speech end and the rule of law begins.
Durov is being held in France initially without formal charges, but authorities could accuse the Telegram founder of failing to police illegal content and commerce conducted via Telegram.
Musk’s X is likewise in the crosshairs of European policymakers, with the EU Commission recently reminding him of its failure to observe the Digital Services Act that requires large platform owners to systematically clamp down on false and misleading content.
The entrepreneur, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, called on France to “free Pavel”, warning his arrest signalled dangerous times ahead for democracy.
“The 2nd amendment is the only reason long-term that the 1st amendment will be upheld,” he added, referring to the constitutionally-protected right in the United States to bear arms and exercise free speech.
POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme https://t.co/OkZ6YS3u2P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2024
Musk increasingly casts himself as someone trying to stem a rising tide of censorship and government overreach. The X owner, earlier this month, threw a vulgar insult at Brussels for its perceived heavy handed approach to regulation. (Musk has, as of now, yet to criticize China, the manufacturing hub for half of Tesla cars).
Chris Pavlovski, CEO of YouTube rival Rumble, used similarly blunt language after claiming to have “safely” departed European soil.
“France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech,” he posted on Sunday.
It’s unclear what Pavlovski was doing in Europe, and he did not respond to a request from Fortune for comment.
‘What’s next… the arrest of Elon Musk?’
This year has been one of the biggest tests for democracy in recent memory, with elections held in countries comprising more than half the world’s population.
Election integrity has therefor been a major concern across the political spectrum. Regulators like the EU Commission have been particularly sensitive to the risk that hoaxes can spread instantly across social media like Telegram or X where there is little to no oversight or accountability.
In a statement, Telegram countered allegations of presumed wrongdoing by saying Durov had “nothing to hide” and claimed the Dubai resident with French citizenship regularly travels to Europe, pushing back against the notion he had only now been arrested after finally stepping on EU soil.
The arrest of Pavel Durov is worrying.
Telegram is a secure free speech app. It may have some bad actors, but then all platforms do.
What next… the arrest of Elon Musk?
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 25, 2024
Nigel Farage, the head of the populist Reform Party in the UK and a close associate of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, conceded that bad apples are common on social media platforms like Telegram.
“The arrest of Pavel Durov is worrying,” he posted. “What next… the arrest of Elon Musk?”
Rumble stands with Telegram.
— Chris Pavlovski (@chrispavlovski) August 25, 2024
Alexander Vindman, the retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel that testified as a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment, wrote that Durov’s case had broader implications for social media sites like X.
“There’s a growing intolerance for platforming disinfo & malign influence & a growing appetite for accountability,” he wrote. “Musk should be nervous.”
Last month, Musk posted a deepfake video with an AI-generated voiceover of Kamala Harris calling herself a diversity hire and Biden senile. The post didn’t explicitly mention the use of AI in what some argued was a violation of X’s his own terms of service against manipulating content for the purposes of deception.
Musk later shared a fabricated story purportedly by UK daily newspaper The Telegraph reporting that British rioters would be deported to the Falkland Islands, near Argentina. The Tesla CEO quietly deleted the post, which racked up millions of views, after he was called out for distributing disinformation.
“Propaganda isn’t just about creating fake news,” Musk would go on to explain last week, without referring to any specific incident. “It’s also about hiding real news.”
X in financially troubled waters, leaving its banks on the hook
Musk’s stewardship of X is turning into a financial disaster for the entrepreneur. According to internal company figures cited by the New York Times, U.S. revenue in Q2 plunged to $114 million, representing a steep 84% decline over pre-Musk Twitter just two years prior.
Fidelity has taken a massive charge on the value of its private investment in X, while money managers are treating the company’s debt as if it was radioactive. A consortium of banks that underwrote Musk’s October 2022 buyout have been unable to offload nearly $13 billion of leveraged loans still sitting on their book
Tesla investors now fear Musk will liquidate more stock just to keep X afloat.
When reached by Fortune for comment, X replied it was busy. Musk did not respond to a request.
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