Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who made waves as a key witness in the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump, issued a warning to Elon Musk on Sunday after Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France.
Durov was served with an arrest warrant in Paris on Saturday night following a preliminary police investigation surrounding his alleged failure to sufficiently limit criminal activity on Telegram, according to TF1 TV and BFM TV.
While experts and industry leaders sounded the alarm about the international free speech implications of his arrest, Vindman championed the move, taking to X to warn its CEO about the “growing appetite for accountability” before suggesting that Musk could be next.
Then-National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is sworn in in November 2019 to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington during a public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump’s efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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“While Durov holds French citizenship, is arrested for violating French law, this has broader implications for other social media, including Twitter,” Vindman wrote. “There’s a growing intolerance for platforming disinfo & malign influence & a growing appetite for accountability. Musk should be nervous.”
Musk called out Durov’s arrest in multiple posts on X over the weekend and shared the hashtag #FreePavel on social media.
“Dangerous times,” Musk wrote in one post that referred to government-imposed censorship.
Telegram, which has over 900 million users, is a messaging app that is comparable to WhatsApp, but according to The New York Times, also allows large groups of people to communicate across different channels.
The New York Times also reported that the app was on “the radar of law enforcement agencies around the world because terrorist organizations, drug runners, weapons dealers and far-right extremist groups have used it for communicating, recruiting and organizing.”
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Prominent politicians and industry leaders rallied behind Durov, accusing the French government of violating free speech with his arrest.
“The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent,” RFK Jr. wrote on X.
Elon Musk and RFK Jr. spoke out in support of free speech while reacting to the news that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov had been arrested in France. (Left: ((Photo by Richard Bord/WireImage), Center: (Photo by AOP.Press/Corbis via Getty Images), Right: (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images))
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski commented, “France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech,” he wrote.
Ian Miles Cheong, a conservative commentator, argued the arrest was part of a witch hunt.
“This is about silencing dissent and controlling information. They want to turn the internet into another arm of their propaganda machine. We’re watching freedom of speech being attacked right before our eyes,” he posted.
Vindman’s warning to Musk seemingly garnered significant backlash, prompting him to double down in a follow up post, where he railed against “free speech absolutists weirdos.”
“Enforcement is only likely to increase….” he wrote, adding that those concerned with Durov’s arrest should focus their attention on “the fact that your nominee for POTUS is a sexual predator…”
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Vindman and his twin brother, Eugene Vindman, gained national attention in 2020 during Trump’s first impeachment when he, with the help of Eugene, who both worked for the National Security Council under the Trump administration, blew the whistle on Trump’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding first son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the nation. Alexander later testified against the former president and retired from the military.
Fox News’ Hanna Panreck and Fox Business’ Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.