Elon Musk defends Telegram boss Pavel Durov and criticizes Mark Zuckerberg for bowing to “censorship pressure.”

On X, a user wondered why Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t been arrested, despite owning apps that work similarly to Telegram.

Elon Musk shared the post and said: “Because he caved to censorship pressure. Instagram has a huge 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 exploitation problem, but no one arrested Zuck because he censored free speech and gave the government backdoor access to user data.”

Billionaire Elon Musk at an event in Los Angeles, California on April 13.

In the message, Musk is said to be referring to the harassment minors face every day when using Facebook and Instagram. Meta has been sued many times, as well as denounced by former employees. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg also had to testify and apologize to the families of the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren affected.

Following Musk’s post, a Meta representative said the company always complies with law enforcement requests for data if legally compelled. The representative asserted that both Messenger and WhatsApp are encrypted, meaning third parties, including Meta, cannot access user data.

Musk and Zuckerberg have long been rivals, often criticizing each other whenever they have the chance. Most recently, the Tesla CEO continued to challenge the Meta head to a martial arts fight. When Zuckerberg wore a vest to surf on the US Independence Day, Musk attacked him , saying that he preferred work to play.

But on July 23, Tesla CEO unexpectedly gave a rare compliment to the head of Meta after the company released its latest open-source AI model, Llama 3.1. “This is impressive and Zuck deserves credit for building an open-source AI tool,” Musk wrote on X.

On August 24, Pavel Durov , co-founder and CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram, was arrested at an airport outside Paris after arriving from Azerbaijan on a private plane. He was arrested on charges that Telegram did not have enough moderators and did not cooperate with authorities. Telegram’s encryption features are also said to have allowed criminal activity to go unchecked, making Durov potentially an accomplice in drug trafficking, cyber violence, fraud, organized crime, and inciting terrorism.

After Durov was arrested, Musk wrote on X: “It’s 2030 and in Europe you’re on trial for liking a meme.” The American billionaire also repeatedly shared videos of the Telegram CEO’s statements with the hashtag #FreePavel.