Pavel Durov's case: Macron takes on censorship While the beacons of democracy remain silent

The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been detained by French special forces at Paris' Le Bourget airport as he was disembarking from his private jet. This event is bound to be a major topic in global media for some time and will spark lively debate among politicians in France and beyond. I'll be watching closely to see how those who are quick to play the moral high ground when it comes to Azerbaijan will react.

This is a clear case of politically motivated arrest. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has failed on all fronts and is now forced to obey the directives of his former protégés, has also become the one who sanctioned this high-profile political arrest. There is no doubt that such a sensational detention occurred with his approval.

Pavel Durov

According to reports from French media, the detention is linked to accusations of "facilitating criminal activities through the encrypted messenger Telegram." The charges also include alleged connections to "illegal drug trafficking," "crimes against children," and "fraud." French authorities accuse Durov of refusing to cooperate with law enforcement on these matters, which was the formal basis for his detention. 

He's been accused of everything under the sun: terrorism, drugs, complicity, fraud, money laundering, covering up crimes, and distributing pedophilic content. It’s surprising that Durov hasn’t yet been blamed for orchestrating the September 11, 2001, attacks. This highlights how the West is unparalleled when it comes to fabricating charges against someone they want to detain. They act with blatant disregard for the damage to their reputation.

Why? Because all these "human rights organizations" and "leading global media outlets" are under their strict control. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan openly addressed this during the Second Global Media Forum in Shusha, which, by the way, focused on "Unmasking False Narratives: Confronting Disinformation." He provided clear examples of the infamous "double standards" that are rampant in the collective West.

"Many countries prefer just to close their eyes or to turn their face and not to be involved, not to have a headache, not to be demonized in Le Figaro or Le Monde, which have become an instrument in the hands of French president’s regime. I tell it with complete confidence. We know the messages, which go to these media outlets from the Élysée Palace," said the Azerbaijani president at the time.

I’m confident that Le Figaro and Le Monde will side with French President Macron, even as many French politicians openly express their shock over what has happened. For instance, Florian Philippot, leader of the French party "The Patriots," wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that France has shown the world its tyrannical nature and its embodiment of censorship.  

"The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is driving increasingly harsh crackdowns on free speech in France. I wonder if they could detain and imprison Elon Musk, the owner of X, in the same way if he were to visit France?" he wrote in his post.

But it’s unlikely that the leading French media, accustomed to receiving directives from the Élysée Palace, will report on this.

Meanwhile, it’s clear that by the same "logic" used to detain Durov, the heads of X and Meta should also be arrested. Why is the European Union, which lectures the world on human rights, quietly accepting such repressive actions from one of its members—France? Why is Peter Stano not making any statements? And what about the U.S. State Department? If something like this happened in Azerbaijan, there would be an uproar and outcry by now!

Yes, there are aspects of Telegram that raise security concerns for Azerbaijan—such as anonymity, insufficient content moderation, the spread of hate speech, and so on. However, no one here ever considered arresting Durov for that. He spent his time in Azerbaijan peacefully and without any issues. 

And it’s not just Durov. In Azerbaijan, no one would ever consider arresting Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, despite the fact that their platforms host accounts that openly violate Azerbaijani law. Azerbaijan would not pursue Julian Assange in the way that the collective West has, despite its erroneous belief that it has the right to lecture the world on "freedom of speech" and "human rights," while ignoring these principles when it suits France, the U.S., or other Western nations. All this happens amidst the complete and cowardly silence of so-called Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, and other entities that serve the interests of leading global powers.