NEW YORK, August 29. /TASS/. The United States used the Telegram platform to mobilize protests against regimes it did not like, Mike Benz, a former US Department of State official, said.
"Telegram is this very powerful vehicle for the US State Department to be able to mobilize protests," he said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, which was posted on the latter’s X page.
According to Benz, thanks to Telegram, Washington could fund "political groups or political dissidents, get tens of thousands of people to their cause with relative impunity."
Durov, one of the world’s most influential tech icons, was detained at Paris’ Le Bourget Airport late on August 24. On Wednesday, a court in Paris charged him with six out of 12 offences named previously, the capital prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The charges include the refusal to cooperate with the authorities, complicity in dissemination of child pornography, complicity in drug trafficking and in a fraud, committed within an organized group. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, he may face a prison term of up to ten years and a fine of 500,000 euro.
The judge in charge of Durov’s case placed him under judicial control with an obligation to post a bail of 5 million euros, to report to the police station twice a week and he is forbidden to leave the territory of France.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that Durov's detention was not politically motivated. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that France’s stance on the issue shows that the values, including freedom of speech, that the country previously upheld are being destroyed, rather than ignored.