But the court in charge of the investigation, the Paris criminal court, probably didn’t expect to garner so much attention and speculation. The billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk, posted “#FreePavel” on his own social networking platform. Edward Snowden — the NSA whistleblower and privacy campaigner — implied Durov’s arrest was a political decision taken by French President, Emmanuel Macron.

Given that Telegram is the most popular social app in Russia and Ukraine, it also became a hot topic for both Russian authorities and the Russian opposition.