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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 26, 2024

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In reality, everything that the EU wants Durov to remove from Telegram is stuff Musk’s X already does remove and is happy to remove if a takedown notice is filed.

As someone who's never used Telegram, to what extent do you think this is due to right-leaning Western content, versus its affiliations and use by the Russian military and PMCs?

From the comments I've seen on this topic, it's probably at least 90 % the latter. I share the view that Durov's arrest is very worrisome from a free-speech perspective vis-a-vis Europe, but it's almost guaranteed to be because they think he's hiding some secret connection to the Russian government and think they can wring info or concessions out of Telegram on that font. The European elites absolutely care way more about foreign policy and the Russia-Europe conflict more than they care about "dissident Right" or what have you.

The appeals by Russian opposition inside of Russia are probably going to be of scant help to Durov, since the standard European view is that pretty much all oppositional figures remaining inside Russia are fake opposition that actually serves Putin. Again, that's not the smartest way to view it, but that's how it is.