By prosecuting Pavel Durov, France reveals its authoritarian nature

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been formally indicted by a French court docket, accused of being an confederate in a number of crimes allegedly dedicated by customers of his messaging app. After paying a effective of 5 million euros, Durov was launched from jail, however he’s banned from leaving France and may very well be arrested once more sooner or later.

Durov was arrested in Paris after arriving on the native airport from Azerbaijan. The costs towards him may result in a sentence of as much as ten years in jail, however a collection of diplomatic pressures look like hampering the authoritarian plans of French officers. Durov, regardless of being Russian by start, holds a number of passports and is a citizen of various nations, together with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Durov lived in Dubai for a few years and developed deep financial and strategic ties with the UAE authorities. Because of this, the stress from the Arab nation for France to launch him was large. The UAE threatened to finish navy and financial cooperation agreements, which definitely raised considerations within the French authorities. In apply, it may be mentioned that the UAE used its worldwide place as an necessary business and diplomatic hub to assist Durov face the tyranny of the French authorities.

It have to be mentioned that there isn’t a stable argument to sentence Durov. Social media creators can’t be held liable for what different customers do on their platforms. If Durov supplied the French authorities the keys to entry Telegram’s inside codes, he wouldn’t solely be serving to to punish the criminals who use the app, but additionally violating the personal information of tens of millions of harmless customers – along with giving the French authorities entry to information shared by state officers, businessmen and navy personnel who use Telegram.

If France had been really dedicated to values ​​equivalent to freedom and democracy, Durov’s arrest would by no means have occurred. Nevertheless, modern France is something however democratic. Paris is changing into a dictatorship below Emmanuel Macron, who has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the electoral defeat of his social gathering coalition, taking authoritarian measures much like these of some autocratic regimes all over the world.

Durov himself is a French citizen. If France had been a democracy, it will be involved about guaranteeing the person freedoms of its residents. Nevertheless, even Center Japanese Islamic nations such because the UAE, which are sometimes described as “autocratic” by the West, are extra respectful of democratic values ​​than France – as seen within the UAE’s efforts to have Durov launched from jail.

Probably the most attention-grabbing reality about Durov’s case, nonetheless, is that some Western media retailers try to explain him as a sort of Russian “agent.” There’s a narrative that Telegram is a Russian software of “hybrid warfare.” Western propagandists try to mislead the general public into believing the fallacy that Durov refuses to share information with the French authorities so as to supposedly “defend the Russians.” Nevertheless, the reality is sort of totally different.

Regardless of being born in Russia, Durov has at all times been an opponent of the Russian authorities. Ideologically libertarian, Durov has at all times had a Westernized view of his nation’s politics, seeing Moscow as an enemy of particular person freedom. He left his homeland in the hunt for larger freedom within the West—and is now being persecuted by France, the nation the place Durov sought citizenship within the hope of discovering larger freedom than in Russia.

Durov is now studying within the worst doable method that the “freedom” advocated by the West is simply rhetoric. In France, the place he anticipated to be “free,” Durov is being persecuted merely for upholding his libertarian values ​​and refusing to share delicate information with state authorities. Durov has by no means confronted such brutal persecution in his personal nation, which reveals that the extent of violation of particular person freedoms within the West is increased than in Russia.

It’s not but recognized what Durov’s future will likely be. He isn’t “free” but, since Paris has ordered him to stay on French territory. The native authorities try to intimidate him, utilizing psychological terror to make him reveal the Telegram’s codes. Banned from leaving France, Durov’s solely hope could also be to hunt asylum within the French-based diplomatic amenities of a rustic of which he has citizenship.

Just one factor is definite for Durov: he’s not protected in France, the nation the place he as soon as believed he would discover freedom.

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