French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron has taken to X to set the record straight, saying the French government was not involved in Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest.

Since Durov was arrested over the weekend when his private jet landed in France. French authorities said the arrest was in regard to illegal activity on Telegram’s platform, and the company’s failure to cooperate with law enforcement or moderate illegal content.

Critics were quick to paint the arrest as a politically motivated attack on free speech, given Durov’s long history of refusing to hand over user data to authorities. Macron has evidently taken issue with those characterizations, posting the following message on X (machine translated):

I read false information here regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov.

France is more than anything attached to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation and to the spirit of enterprise. It will remain so.

In a state governed by the rule of law, on social networks as in real life, freedoms are exercised within a framework established by law to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.

It is up to the justice system, in complete independence, to ensure that the law is respected.

The arrest of the Telegram president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide.

Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) | Monday, August 26, 2024

While it is certainly possible that there is some legitimate criminal investigative reason for Durov’s arrest, there’s no denying that France has been moving further and further in the direction of censorship. The country has worked to pass legislation that would allow police to activate virtually any devices cameras, microphones, and GPS if the subject in question was even suspected of a crime.

France has also pushed to weaken the European Media Freedom Act to allow member states to surveil journalists and their sources in the name of “national security.”

“The inclusion of a general national security exception is at best a blunder and at worst a danger to journalism,” said Christophe Deloire, RSF secretary-general, said in July 2023. “It is a blank cheque for unbridled surveillance, a short step from the crudest form of police spying and an open door to abuse. And it is a political mistake, because this blow to the EMFA provides weapons to its detractors.

Given France’s march toward becoming a surveillance state, until more details come to light, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that “the rule of law” is being used to crush freedom of speech.