The founder and CEO of Rumble — a YouTube alternative billing itself as “immune to cancel culture” — said he has “departed” from Europe after Pavel Durov, the CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram, was arrested.
“I’ve just safely departed from Europe,” Chris Pavlovski, a Canadian national, posted on X on Sunday, Aug. 25.
He claimed France had “threatened Rumble” and had “crossed a red line” by arresting Telegram’s Durov. In November 2022, Rumble blocked access to French users, claiming the country’s government asked it to remove “certain Russian news sources,” which it said it would legally challenge.
In May, Pavlovski also claimed Russia blocked Rumble because it “refused to comply with their censorship demands.”
They are already cooperating with law enforcement and 5 eyes. There is no reason to arrest them. Pavel was arrested because they want a backdoor in Telegram to spy and sensor. But I guess it’s the good kind of spying and censorship :)