Rumble, the video hosting platform led by Chris Pavlovski, has been locked in a legal dispute with French authorities for some time.
Chris Pavlovski, CEO of video-sharing platform Rumble, has condemned France’s arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, calling it a violation of boundaries. He has stated that he left Europe after news of Durov’s arrest broke.
Durov was apprehended at a Paris airport on Saturday evening upon arrival from Azerbaijan via private jet. Although French officials haven’t publicly disclosed the reason for detaining the Russian tech mogul, reports suggest the charges relate to his alleged involvement in drug trafficking, pedophilia offenses, fraud, and failure to address criminal activity on the messaging platform.
Telegram has refuted any wrongdoing, stating that it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Pavlovski announced that he had “safely departed from Europe” following Durov’s arrest. He denounced France’s actions, labeling them a “crossing of a red line,” while highlighting that the country had previously issued threats against Rumble.
”Rumble will not tolerate this behavior and will employ every legal means at our disposal to fight for freedom of expression, a fundamental human right. We are currently engaged in legal proceedings in France, and we are hopeful for Pavel Durov’s immediate release,” he added.
Pavlovski’s platform, which has positioned itself as a free speech alternative to YouTube, has been entangled in its own legal battle with French authorities. This conflict began in November 2022 when officials in Paris banned Rumble for refusing to comply with a request to remove Russian media accounts that were blocked in the EU due to sanctions imposed over the Ukraine conflict.
Despite Durov’s arrest taking place in France, several influential figures, including American entrepreneur David Sacks, have speculated that the US was behind the move. In April, Sacks also predicted that Washington could target Telegram, X, and eventually Rumble, citing the US’s passage of a law that would prohibit the video-sharing platform TikTok if its Chinese-based developer, ByteDance, declined to sell it within 12 months.