Wall Street Journal:

Telegram’s largely hands-off approach to moderating content has made it popular among terrorists as well as genuine political dissidents. Journalists use the app to communicate with sources, though terrorist groups and authoritarian governments also use it to spread propaganda, as Russia has in Ukraine.

Paris prosecutors say Mr. Durov was detained in relation to an investigation into criminal activity on the platform, including child pornography, drug trafficking, money laundering and its refusal to cooperate with law enforcement. Those are serious offenses if true.

But many suspect this is merely a pretext because Europe is also imposing speech controls on other media platforms. France in 2020 sought to require sites to remove hate speech, though most of its law was blocked by the country’s top court. The European Parliament then stepped into the breach with its Digital Services Act, which compels platforms to curb harmful content, including so-called hate speech, disinformation and propaganda.

The European Commission is even conducting “stress tests” to ensure platforms police harmful content. Companies can be fined up to 6% of their worldwide revenue if deemed non-compliant. Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and a former French telecom executive, is wielding the law as a cudgel to censor speech worldwide.

Civics Education: Censorship in Brazil & the US