France: The Pavel Durov’s Arrest
Telegram, a non-Western platform whose owner, founder, and CEO is a Russian genius, is an icon of independence in the tech world. Unlike its Western counterparts, as Snowden revealed, all US platforms have NSA/CIA/US backdoors. Telegram’s independence should empower and not threaten you. Do you believe your emails, communications, and even the private photos and videos you have shared, saved, or communicated through any Western platform, especially the US one, are safe? Think again!
In the tech industry, power dynamics are explicit. American and Western-controlled platforms, or those in puppet states like Japan, South Korea, or Taiwan, have the advantage of easy access, thanks to the US government’s backdoor privileges. This reality dispels any delusions about the exclusivity of your details—of course, I’m not delusional to think for a second that my details are only accessible to me—of course not!
“I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge or even the President, if I had a personal email,” said Edward Snowden, a former NSA intelligence contractor.
Every time you challenge Putin and Russia, the West praises you. As he left Russia and refused to give up his platform to the Russian government, Pavel Durov earned praise as the champion of free speech. The West tried to lure him into their propaganda of human rights and freedom of speech, but he didn’t succumb. Telegram touts itself as a free speech platform, unlike X, whose owner acts like a five-year-old, commenting and responding to every Uche or Femi’s statement. Pavel has amassed a vast wealth, with a net worth of over $15 billion. After leaving Russia for good, he acquired Saint Kitts and Nevis, United Arab Emirates, and French citizenships. Pavel wanted Russia out of his limelight.
He claimed that the United States and the West approached him to request backdoor access to Telegram, but he declined. Then came the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The West unleashed everything they pretended for decades to stand for. Russia managed to unmask the multi-faceted Western propaganda on human rights, freedom of speech, democracy, and all the other platitudes often synchronically regurgitated by Western leaders. Pavel’s only crime is being Russian and refusing to grant backdoor control of Telegram.
The platform has seen a surge and is nearing one billion users. It is one of the world’s top ten most downloaded apps, and the West does not control it—they are unhappy about this. They want to control everything. Because it is Chinese, TikTok faces a near-imminent ban in the West. In 2023, it was the most downloaded app in the world. The popularity of TikTok sends fear into the Western establishment. Why is the West so openly hypocritical? Rumble is another platform whose founders base their core value on libertarian free speech. Its Canadian founder and CEO, Chris Pavlovski, fled Europe immediately after Pavel Durov’s arrest, saying that Europe was no longer safe.
Imagine Russia arresting Pavel Durov under the same circumstances as France. Do you know how busy Western media would have been? Western leaders would have been relentlessly delivering speeches, reiterating the standard themes of human rights, freedom of speech, and similar themes. We should not allow the West, which does not tolerate competition from non-allied countries, to control the world. Russia and China have exposed the hypocrisy, tactics, and, most of all, the Western hegemonic agenda that has kept the global south in chains throughout the 18th to the 20th century. They are still leading into the 21st century, but China, Russia, and BRICS have come to put a halt to that dominance, and they don’t like it.
By Ikechukwu ORJI
