El Salvador Sides with Telegram’s CEO, Advocates Free Speech

• El Salvador keeps topping up its Bitcoin stash, and its BTC holdings surpass $372 million.
• President Nayib Bukele laments Pavel Durov’s arrest and gets approval from Elon Musk.
• With no taxes on foreign property and tech, El Salvador emerged as a crypto hub.

Following the arrest of Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov , several popular crypto figures offered support for the famed tech mogul. In the wake of Durov’s arrest, Nayib Bukele, the pro-Bitcoin President of El Salvador, posted a message on X, implying that the setback would have never happened in his country.

El Salvador’s Message Praises Free Speech

“We also guarantee that you won’t be arrested, censored, or have your assets seized for exercising your right to free speech,” remarked Bukele, who claims El Salvador is now the safest country in the Western Hemisphere. The small Central American nation adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender in September 2021.

X owner Elon Musk applauded the message, posting a snippet of a previous Durov interview with Tucker Carlson. In the interview , Telegram’s CEO explained how the United States government reached out to “establish a relationship” to “better control” Telegram. Durov responded with resistance, citing Telegram’s privacy-focused nature.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Buying Spree Continues

As the story unfolds, El Salvador’s government is carrying out its plan to become a prominent player in the Bitcoin mining industry.

With a publicly trackable cold wallet, El Salvador has added 1 BTC daily since March 16, 2024. According to real-time data from the blockchain intelligence agency Arkham Intelligence, El Salvador’s savings now consist of 5.854K Bitcoins, worth $372,181,963.60 at publication.

Since 2021, El Salvador has become a prominent technology hub, resulting in Google setting up its new headquarters in San Salvador in April 2024. Bukele continued his Bitcoin-loving pursuit by eliminating taxes on the technology sector and extending an invitation to join the country’s remarkable growth via the Bitcoin Passport program. 

Often blaming the United States government for overreaching control, Bukele has even launched a Bitcoin-based foreign investment bank, unfettered by international restrictions.

On the Flipside

• Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was accused of “failing to mitigate the misuse of his platform for criminal activities,” which could be understood as a requirement for the government to have a backdoor to the social networking app.

Why This Matters

Blockchain technology and crypto currencies have become integral parts of today’s politics. The delicate issues of freedom of speech and governmental censorship are closely tied to the nature of blockchain technology.

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