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Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov won’t be bodily attending the Oslo Freedom Discussion board in Oslo, Norway, after French courts denied his request to journey to the Scandinavian nation.
In line with an announcement from the Human Rights Basis (HRF) — a non-profit group that advocates for common human rights and particular person liberty, and the host of the Oslo Freedom Discussion board — Durov will nonetheless ship his keynote tackle remotely over a livestream.
“It’s unlucky that French courts would block Mr. Durov from taking part in an occasion the place his voice is so wanted,” HRF founder and CEO Thor Halvorssen mentioned.
Durov continues to be a vocal advocate for free speech and particular person liberty. Tech and crypto business executives carefully monitor developments associated to Pavel Durov and the implications for individual freedom from his ongoing authorized battle in France.
Associated: Pavel Durov rejects EU pressure to censor Romanian election content
Durov claims French intelligence providers requested him to censor conservative voices
Pavel Durov just lately accused French intelligence officers of asking him to censor conservative-leaning political content material associated to the Romanian presidential elections on the Telegram platform.
Durov mentioned that he flatly denied the request. “You may’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You may’t ‘combat election interference’ by interfering with elections,” Durov wrote in a Could 18 Telegram post.
Though the Telegram founder didn’t initially identify the intelligence official or the European Union nation that requested him to censor the content material, Durov later revealed extra concrete particulars. The Telegram co-founder wrote in a Could 18 X post:
“This spring on the Salon des Batailles, within the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, requested me to ban conservative voices in Romania forward of elections. I refused. We didn’t block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We gained’t begin doing it in Europe.”
Durov has repeatedly acknowledged that Telegram won’t censor political content material on the platform and would exit markets before restricting free speech on the social messaging software.
The Telegram co-founder mentioned that complying with such heavy-handed political censorship constitutes a human rights violation.
Journal: Did Telegram’s Pavel Durov commit a crime? Crypto lawyers weigh in