Prominent voices from the cryptocurrency space reacted to the arrest of the popular messaging app Telegram‘s CEO and founder Pavel Durov in France.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has expressed concern over the future of software and communication freedom in Europe, following recent developments involving Telegram.
What Happened: Ethereum ETH/USD co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed concern over the future of software and communication freedom in Europe via an X post on Sunday.
Buterin said that he had been critical of Telegram’s encryption previously. Still, the charges brought by the authorities for being “unmoderated” and refusing to hand over user data made the issue appear “very bad.”
Another well-known blockchain entrepreneur, Justin Sun, also weighed in. The Tron TRX/USD founder proposed a decentralized funding initiative to help Durov in his legal struggles. Sun pledged to donate $1 million to the cause if it garnered sufficient community support.
Some users called out Sun’s proposal as a gimmick, saying that money was not the problem for Durov, whose net worth is estimated to be more than $15 billion.
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Why It Matters: These responses came after Durov’s arrest shocked many in the corporate world and those advocating for free speech.
Durov, a Russian-French billionaire, was apprehended on Saturday evening while traveling on his private jet. The arrest is linked to an ongoing police investigation in France, which is reportedly focused on the lack of moderators on Telegram, allowing criminal activity to persist on the platform
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also runs social platform X, described the developments as “super messed up.”
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