Tech entrepreneur John Matze said the arrest of Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov was an “existential threat to freedom of speech,” which he said could have global repercussions and set a dangerous precedent that puts freedom at risk.
“This is going to be a huge story. It’s part of a global war on privacy and freedom of speech,” Matze told Fox News Digital.
Matz noted that privacy is a constitutional right and fundamental human right for all Americans, and that it should include encryption and the ability to communicate with large groups.
“This is a very serious threat to privacy and freedom of the press,” Matze said.
French prosecutors indict Telegram CEO Pavel Durov after he was released from detention
John Matz co-founded Parler in 2018, and the platform gained popularity among free speech advocates before it was shut down for failing to moderate “serious content.” He has since started Hedgehog, a community for “everyday Americans to get the biggest news of the day and have quality discussions about it,” and remains a staunch advocate for free speech.
Durov was arrested on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a wide-ranging investigation that began earlier this year. French prosecutors alleged he had allowed criminal activity on messaging apps, and a judge ordered him to be held on 5 million euros of bail. Durov was banned from leaving France while further investigations were conducted.
The allegations against Durov, who is also a French citizen, include that his platform was used to traffic child sexual abuse material and drugs, and that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
Prosecutors said the first preliminary charge against him was “complicity in the management of an online platform that facilitates illegal trading by an organized group,” a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of €500,000.
Matze believes that Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after failing to give in to the Kremlin’s demands for censorship at his previous company, was targeted by the French government “because he generally does not cooperate with government requests for information.”
Matze co-founded Parler in 2018, and the platform gained popularity among free speech advocates before it was shut down for failing to moderate “serious content.” He later started Hedgehog, a community for “everyday Americans to get the biggest news of the day and have quality discussions about it,” and remains a staunch advocate for free speech.
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The plight of Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov has tech entrepreneur John Matz worried. (Left: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Right: Fox News)
“In 2021, my company was deplatformed and taken offline due to accusations of censorship of content. That was not true. We are seeing a repeat of what happened with Telegram, where very reactionary people are pressuring the platform to censor content and eradicate privacy,” Matze said.
“I’m passionate about this,” he continued. “Are social media founders and social media company owners legally responsible? And are they accountable for what people do on their platforms? Like the accusations say.”
Telegram, which has 700 million monthly users by 2023, uses both AI and human moderators to moderate public channels and groups. It is hugely popular in India, where it has 100 million users, and in France, less than 10% of people use it.
“This is important in developing countries and areas where there is current conflict or war because Telegram has the ability to broadcast messages to a large number of people. Think of it as similar to sending a message to your social media feed,” Matze said.
“What it does is in conflict zones or places where freedom of speech is not respected, where people are really fighting for their lives,” he added. “People can get information to a lot of people very quickly, mostly without censorship, and without the risk of local governments in those areas finding out who the people who are fighting for their freedom and their lives are.”
The prosecutor’s office said it opened a preliminary investigation into Telegram in February in response to “almost complete non-responsiveness” to judicial requests from French authorities for data, particularly to track suspected offenders against children.
Matze is not only outraged by Durov’s arrest, but also believes the incident highlights a widespread hypocrisy in how various messaging platforms are treated.
HEDGEHOG CEO Says New Social Media Platform Is a Community ‘For Everyday Americans’, Not for Bad Actors
Hedgehog CEO John Matz said the arrest of Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov was an “existential threat to freedom of speech.” (hedgehog)
“There’s a movement in the West where countries are becoming more aggressive around hate speech laws and other laws that call for more censorship. So what’s really strange and unique about this case is that they’re accusing the platform of criminal activity and that he needs to be held accountable,” Matze said, noting that Meta-owned rival WhatsApp has far more users.
Matze said the same accusations that Durov used encryption without a license were not only absurd and hypocritical, but also set a terrible precedent.
“It’s pretty scary to say that encryption is now illegal, because all these platforms have some kind of encryption, especially WhatsApp and Facebook products have end-to-end encryption. So it’s pretty scary,” he said.
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Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betts contributed to this report.
