Durov was once hailed as a free speech champion by the West – that is until fickle Western leaders suddenly decided that Durov is a threat to the establishment.
About a week before Durov was arrested, some Telegram users uploaded and circulated incriminating documents showing that Israel has been asking for special treatment to evade U.S. lobbying laws that require foreign entities, such as Israel, to register. Just days after the documents were leaked, Durov found himself behind bars.
According to Serbian President Aleksander Vucic, Durov, 39, has become a type of Julian Assange or Edward Snowden with his newfound fame as an outlaw that Western governments hope to silence and incapacitate for refusing to obey their orders.
"Back in 2018 when Russia put some mild legal pressure on him, some 26 groups from the West signed a petition to the Russian state to stop violating his freedom," Vucic said about Durov.
"Fast forward five or six years and it's perfectly normal [for them] to have him arrested and want to shut down Telegram in the West. Everything has gone topsy-turvy. Reality itself has been changed to fit their interests."
(Related: Durov is from Russia, by the way, which is winning the war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions that have left the U.S., rather than Russia, in "agony" because of their ineffectiveness.)
Western tyranny reaching new heights
France is the Western country that ultimately took Durov out of the game, charging him with "facilitating" all sorts of alleged illegal activity including child pornography on the Telegram platform.
When French authorities earlier asked Durov to cooperate with investigators who were pursuing an unnamed third party, Durov refused, choosing instead to adhere to his privacy convictions. Not long after, Durov found himself in handcuffs at the mercy of the French government.
President Emmanuel Macron claims that Durov was arrested for legitimate reasons, and that the move to capture him at Bourget was "in no way a political decision." Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Silicon Valley investor David Sacks all disagree.
Snowden also disagrees, having unleashed the dirty truth about NSA spying on Americans back in 2012 only to then face his own similar persecution at the hands of the state. Snowden says France is holding Durov "hostage" in order to eventually extract private communications from Telegram.
Vucic knows all about what Western governments are capable of as well, seeing as how both the United States and the European Union (EU) have criticized Serbia for allegedly persecuting its political opposition.
According to Vucic, the EU routinely attacks and arrests protesters, sometimes by the hundreds, while Belgrade is much more tolerant of even riots, let alone protests.
"It's all upside-down!" Vucic said. "When you allow the greatest of liberties, you're a dictator. The fewer freedoms exist, the more they speak about them."
In the comments, one person suggested that the EU, the U.S. and their buddy the United Kingdom should spend more time "arresting pedophiles instead of journalists," but then that would require them to actually do good instead of evil in the world.
"Telegram refuses to violate the right to privacy and the rights called freedom of expression, freedom of information, and freedom of opinion," wrote another.
"Then again, a hammer can be used to kill people, so do we sue hardware companies selling hammers because the guy who bought it killed his wife? This is about the twisted logic politicians use to promote tyranny and invent crimes."
Western authorities are anti-free speech tyrants. Learn more at Tyranny.news.
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