Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov will not be physically attending the Oslo Freedom Forum in Oslo, Norway, after French courts denied his request to travel to the Scandinavian country.
According to an announcement from the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) — a non-profit organization that advocates for universal human rights and individual liberty, and the host of the Oslo Freedom Forum — Durov will still deliver his keynote address remotely over a livestream.
“It is unfortunate that French courts would block Mr. Durov from participating in an event where his voice is so needed,” HRF founder and CEO Thor Halvorssen said.
Durov continues to be a vocal advocate for free speech and individual liberty. Tech and crypto industry executives closely monitor developments related to Pavel Durov and the implications for individual freedom from his ongoing legal battle in France.
Related: Pavel Durov rejects EU pressure to censor Romanian election content
Durov claims French intelligence services asked him to censor conservative voices
Pavel Durov recently accused French intelligence officials of asking him to censor conservative-leaning political content related to the Romanian presidential elections on the Telegram platform.
Durov said that he flatly denied the request. “You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering with elections,” Durov wrote in a May 18 Telegram post.
Although the Telegram founder did not initially name the intelligence official or the European Union country that asked him to censor the content, Durov later revealed more concrete details. The Telegram co-founder wrote in a May 18 X post:
“This spring at the Salon des Batailles, in the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections. I refused. We didn’t block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won’t start doing it in Europe.”
Durov has repeatedly stated that Telegram will not censor political content on the platform and would exit markets before restricting free speech on the social messaging application.
The Telegram co-founder said that complying with such heavy-handed political censorship constitutes a human rights violation.
Magazine: Did Telegram’s Pavel Durov commit a crime? Crypto lawyers weigh in
