PARIS - After the arrest of the Telegram chief executive officer (CEO), the owner of the US social media platform X Elon Musk, and former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden both condemned this arrest and stressed the freedom of speech on Sunday.

The founder and CEO of the encrypted messenger Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested Saturday evening at Le Bourget Airport in Paris.

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Following a tweet with the tag #FreePavel on X, Musk wrote several other posts stressing the importance of protecting free speech and democracy.

For Snowden's part, in his posts on X, he called the arrest of Pavel Durov "an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association."

"I am surprised and deeply saddened that (French President Emmanuel) Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications. It lowers not only France, but the world," he said.

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In response to the arrest, the Telegram group said on its X account that the company "abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act."

"It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform," it added.

According to the French daily Le Figaro, Durov's arrest warrant was issued by a special unit within the French Interior Minister tasked with combating crimes against minors, in coordination with various investigative services.

Durov is accused of violating French law by failing to take action against the use of his messaging platform by subscribers involved in offenses such as cyberbullying, sharing pedophilia content, and glorification of terrorism, the French media outlet said.

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Telegram, the instant messaging app founded by Durov, allows up to 200,000 members per chat group and claims not to collect users' information or censor content. With approximately 900 million subscribers, it is now one of the world's leading messaging platforms.