Telegram founder arrested in France

The most interesting thing in tech: the strange and surprising arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov in France. The French government says that this is a story about child exploitation facilitated by the platforms. Others argue that Durov is just a martyr for free speech. It's a twisting story—about an app that people seem to think is encrypted but actually isn't really—with, I suspect, a few more twists to go. #Telegram #technews #PavelDurov

The arrest in France of Telegram's CEO is a big, big deal in the tech world—but also for its nearly 1 billion users. Most of my U.S. crypto sources use Signal (as they should) but Telegram is still common in broader crypto circles. So why was the CEO arrested? Elon Musk and others are framing this as a blow against free speech. I'm normally sympathetic to this argument but not in the case of Telegram. As this recent Fortune feature by Niamh Rowe revealed, the app is like an open-air bazaar for heroin, machine guns, terror recruiting and more. We have some pretty damning screenshots in the story! There are also the murky ties to Moscow. The arrested CEO Pavel Durov is Russian and, even though, he has spent recent years in exile, his app is a big part of day-to-day life in the country. Twitter and Facebook are banned but Telegram is okay—so much so that it's the go-to platform for Russian military bloggers who share accounts about the invasion of Ukraine. Finally, Telegram is dodgy not only because of the unfettered access to drugs and weapons and its Russia ties, but because the security is weak. Durov has professed that it's totally secure but it's not. Unlike Signal (the gold standard for secure messaging), Telegram is often not encrypted, meaning it's easy for governments to snoop on messages. Wired magazine and others have provided compelling evidence for that the app may have a back door for the Kremlin. Be careful out there! (And read Niamh's great story to get up to speed) https://lnkd.in/e6TjnNQC

EU strikes again. While I agree that platforms should be designed to reduce abuse as much as possible. But placing the blame on technologists and business people unless the service is engineered to foster criminal activity is simple governments shifting the blame for votes. As far as I am aware there is no direct attempt by telegram to foster criminal activity. https://lnkd.in/e6iMaJBe

Oh no! What are scammers and hackers going to use now ?? ? All jokes aside, the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov raises some serious questions about the future of secure messaging platforms. With Telegram known for its strong encryption and popularity among privacy-conscious users, this development could have significant implications for both legitimate users and those with malicious intent. https://lnkd.in/eMtbPtHP #CyberSecurity #Privacy #Telegram #TechNews

Let's hope this catches on. I can't think of any other industry where companies get away with destroying and/or obscuring critical data in the regular course. Imagine a bank that destroys all deposit, withdrawal, and other records for "customer privacy." Or one that never creates those types of standard records in the first place. Embezzlers would flock to it. But even with such data practices there is no question that the bank itself would be able to see at least some of those crimes happening based on customer activity. That's what certain companies are doing but on a mass scale and in connection with children and crimes that make embezzling seem like a good deed. Edit: "Let's hope this catches on" was a reference to one social media app in particular, not all of them. Specifically, one that operates in some regards similar to Telegram, but in the context of marketing to and manipulating children - which is resulting in untold harms to children, and predators acting with near-impunity.

It is hard to overstate the significance of Durov’s arrest in France and the dangers arising from this action. With this precedent, global messaging platforms may be forced to apply local content moderation laws, including those enacted by authoritarian regimes, across their entire global platform or risk not just blocking their platforms, but now the arrest of their executives. It is also a double standard in that EU routinely imposed sanctions on foreign authoritarian government officials for cracking down on internet messaging platforms, and now has decided to join them. The era of open Internet is officially over.