The head of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been charged by the French judiciary for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the messaging app but avoided jail with a €5m bail.
The Russian-born multi-billionaire, who has French citizenship, was granted release on condition that he report to a police station twice a week and remain in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.
The charges against Durov include complicity in the spread of sexual images of children and a litany of other alleged violations on the messaging app.
His surprise arrest has put a spotlight on the criminal liability of Telegram, the popular app with around 1 billion users, and has sparked debate over free speech and government censorship.
Telegram has no end to end encryption by default.
Yeah, I’m siding with the French government on this one at first blush. E2EE platforms are a necessary tool for combating government overreach and corporate surveillance. But if you willingly make a platform that’s not E2EE, the idea of users being able to share this vile shit being a “necessary evil” toward the greater societal good completely falls apart. If you 1) have this vile content on your platform, 2) know it exists, 3) can trivially combat it in a targeted manner, and 4) choose not to, then you’re complicit in its distribution.
I have no sympathy for a CEO who tries to dupe their userbase into believing their app is private and then not even take advantage of the one single ethical benefit to the platform not being E2EE.
Not to whatabout it but under this logic we got other "CEO"s who should see a similar treatment.
Will they?
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bootlicker much? would you also be excited if Russia arrests Proton CEO for dubious reasons or is your reasoning based on ideology and tribalism?
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@NegativeInf @scorp if your logic holds then why haven’t landline providers, Gmail, AOL, and ther companies come under the same scrutiny? The fact is all technology can and will be used outside of intended design.
Because they cooperate with authorities? Your phone line info, your email, your Facebook? It’s all a subpoena or search warrant away.
Part of this arrest was due to management not cooperating with the government in the government trying to police dangerous content.
Is that the point here? Telegram is not a messaging app, it have that functionality but it does not revolve around that. And there is e2ee if you enable it. Thanks
But Telegram IS a messaging app? Their motto is literally “a new era of messaging”.
Yes, but it’s not it’s only functionality, unlike signal. Also how is durovs arrest can be justified by saying “telegram aint e2ee”? Signal bros are something else.
I’m just calling out your phrase saying that Telegram is not a messaging app, when it is. That is all.
No one here has said or implied that.