The billionaire has defended Telegram CEO Pavel Durov after he was arrested in France, saying the arrest was a violation of freedom of speech.

Elon Musk condemns the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Photo: Barlamantoday.

Elon Musk condemns the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Photo: Barlamantoday .

After Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X, he became a vocal advocate for the First Amendment of the US Constitution and a “free speech absolutist.”

He began to criticize the censorship policies of major social networks, while allowing all kinds of content to be posted on X. This included hateful, controversial, and misinformation content, but all of it went unchecked.

The CEO recently reminded his millions of followers of this once again, speaking out against the arrest of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, in France.

Police told local media that they were investigating the CEO for crimes including fraud, drug trafficking and organized crime on Telegram. Durov’s arrest comes as part of an investigation in Europe, where several countries have accused Telegram of failing to censor criminal content.

The news sent shockwaves across the tech world, prompting many big names to condemn the arrest.

Meanwhile, according to Business Insider , Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is a like-minded person with Musk.

Telegram’s founder left Russia to avoid having to give up Russian user data on the social network Vkontakte, which he founded in 2006. He has also repeatedly refused to censor content on Telegram related to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, or to ban communications between terrorist groups in the West.

Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested by authorities at Le Bourget airport, shortly after landing in France. Photo: Mashable.

Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested by authorities at Le Bourget airport, shortly after landing in France. Photo: Mashable.

The statement is in line with Musk’s views. The billionaire has posted a series of posts since Durov’s arrest, criticizing the move as a violation of free speech. “Freedom, freedom! Freedom? Dangerous times,” he wrote in one post.

Musk also added the hashtag “FreePavel” when sharing a video of Durov praising Musk and his free speech stance during an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year.

“It is important to support free speech that you share X posts with people you know, especially in countries with a lot of censorship,” Musk wrote on X on August 25.

He also shared a tweet from Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski, who said France had “crossed a red line” with Durov’s arrest.

“Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use all available legal means to fight for freedom of expression, the right of every human being. We are fighting in the French courts and hope that Pavel Durov will be released immediately,” said the Rumble CEO.

Although Musk considers himself a free speech absolutist, he has a history of silencing his critics, firing employees who disagree with him and banning accounts that criticize him, according to Business Insider .