Telegram CEO arrest: France's decline is real from now on, says Capitalmind's Deepak Shenoy, seeks Pavel Durov's release

Capitalmind's founder and CEO Deepak Shenoy on Sunday reacted to the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, and said that the decline of France will be real from now on.

Durov was arrested at Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris, after landing in France from Azerbaijan.

In a post on X, BloomTech CEO Austen Allred posted a news report of Durov's arrest and asked "Do you realize how insane it is for a government to arrest the founder of a messaging app because it doesn’t let them control or see the messages that are sent?."

Following that, Deepak Shenoy reacted to Allred's post with a hashtag #FREEDUROV and said that "arresting Telegram's CEO because they don't like it that he doesn't let them see user's content, is incredible.

Shenoy added that, to some extent, France has fallen, and the decline is real from now on.

Russian-born Durov, who founded Telegram with his brother in 2013, is accused of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of his platform. He is to appear in court Sunday.

"Enough of Telegram's impunity," AFP quoted one investigator who expressed surprise that Durov flew to Paris knowing he was a wanted man.

French media reported that Durov, 39, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by France based on allegations that his encrypted platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and allowing the sharing of content linked to sexual exploitation of minors, reported PTI.

Russian government officials expressed outrage at Durov's arrest, with some highlighting what they said was the West's double standards on freedom of speech.

“In 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, condemned the Russian court's decision to block Telegram,” AP quoted Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as saying.

Elon Musk, who owns the X social media platform, posted a hashtag #FreePavel and commented in French, "Liberte Liberte! Liberte?" (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).

Former US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr said, also on X, that "the need to protect free speech has never been more urgent".