French police detained Pavel Durov
On one of the French airports, police detained Telegram "owner" [1] [2]. The chargres that he faces are clear indications that it’s an abuse of his rights.
Durow may face charges related to a series of crimes, including terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, and the distribution of pedophilic content. [3]
Stop this nonsense, don’t cancel anonymous messaging platforms
Clearly, the charges he can face are ones he did not commit. Just because people use anonymous messaging for crime does not mean we should get rid of it.
NYT claims that Telegram is not properly moderated and should face fines and force regulations.
Mr. Durov, whose net worth was estimated by Bloomberg at more than $9 billion, has largely avoided the kind of public scrutiny faced by top executives of other large online platforms, including Elon Musk of X, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Shou Chew of TikTok and Sundar Pichai of Google. [2]
And I disagree again. Moderation on big platforms should not be enforced by the government. Especially when big platform allows for anoymous communication. This is getting ridiculous!
Internet censorship is a government tool
Governments across the world love to control our freedoms. Women cannot get abortions, and men cannot avoid draft.
Still, they can order their abortion pills and communicate during war through encrypted messaging systems. There are places on this earth where this is illegal. China, Iran, Syria are one of the examples [4] and I don’t think Europe should join this shameful list.
If he goes to jail, I’m going on the streets!
We need to protest this. Once we learn more about charges, I think everyone who is concerned about freedom of speech should protest.
They start with Telegram, and soon they will go for Signal [5].
Sources
[1] “ [Telegram CEO] Pavel Durov’s Telegram Founder Arrest Should Worry Privacy Advocates .” [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsUWK-OUtRg.
[2] “Telegram’s Top Executive Pavel Durov Reportedly Detained in France.” [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/25/technology/pavel-durov-telegram-detained-france.html.
[3] “Telegram founder Pavel Durov, detained in Paris, faces serious charges.” [Online]. Available: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-detained-in-paris-faces-serious-charges/ar-AA1powcR .
[4] “Internet censorship and surveillance by country.” [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveillance_by_country.
[5] “Signal.” [Online]. Available: https://signal.org/.