Musk praises Durov on refusal of French political censorship attempt
(MENAFN) Elon Musk has voiced his support for Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who claimed he rejected a French government request to censor conservative political content on his platform ahead of Romania’s presidential runoff.
Durov revealed on Sunday that a Western European government had asked him to remove Romanian Telegram channels, allegedly to prevent election interference. He refused, stating that it was contradictory to fight election meddling by interfering with the electoral process itself. Musk, who owns a controlling stake in X (formerly Twitter), responded with a short message: “Hear, hear!”
Although Durov did not initially name the country, French officials later acknowledged they were the subject of his comments but denied ever making such a request. Durov later identified Nicolas Lerner, the head of France’s domestic intelligence agency DGSI, as the official involved.
The dispute unfolded as Romania held its presidential runoff election. The Romanian Foreign Ministry accused Russia of trying to influence the election but did not provide evidence. In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the process, saying Romania’s election hardly met democratic standards and criticized Bucharest for trying to shift blame.
Earlier in 2024, Romania’s Constitutional Court nullified the first round of presidential elections after right-wing independent Calin Georgescu won unexpectedly. Reports linked his campaign’s online outreach to a government-affiliated consultancy allegedly aimed at dividing right-wing support. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance later cited the incident as an example of European Union interference in democratic processes.
In Sunday’s runoff, pro-EU candidate Nicusor Dan narrowly defeated Euroskeptic challenger George Simion to become Romania’s next president.
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