The day after Pavel Durov, a Russian emigre billionaire and the founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging service, was arrested in France, the most fascinating aspect was the spectrum of those who promptly came to his defense. Unsurprisingly, free-market and free-speech absolutists were among the first to rally behind him, cherishing Telegram’s absence of moderation and its reluctance, if not outright refusal, to comply with laws and regulations. Russian opposition figures and opinion leaders, who have relied on Telegram to spread their message, also expressed concern. Yet, intriguingly, Russi…
