Telegram founder's arrest is radical — if it's a crime to build privacy tools, there will be no privacy
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Pavel Durov's arrest suggests that the law enforcement dragnet is being widened from private financial transactions to private speech.

Pavel Durov’s arrest suggests that the law enforcement dragnet is being widened from private financial transactions to private speech.

The arrest of the Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France this week is extremely significant. It confirms that we are deep into the second crypto war, where governments are systematically seeking to prosecute developers of digital encryption tools because encryption frustrates state surveillance and control. While the first crypto war in the 1990s was led by the United States, this one is led jointly by the European Union — now its own regulatory superpower.

Durov, a former Russian, now French citizen, was arrested in Paris on Saturday, and has now been indicted. You can read the French accusations here. They include complicity in drug possession and sale, fraud, child pornography and money laundering. These are extremely serious crimes — but note that the charge is complicity, not participation. The meaning of that word “complicity” seems to be revealed by the last three charges: Telegram has been providing users a “cryptology tool” unauthorised by French regulators.

  • istanbullu@lemmy.ml
    715·
    3 months ago

    Well, except Telegram isn’t a good tool for privacy.

    If Telegram wasn’t good for privacy, Western governments would not be trying to shut it down.

    E2EE is nice, but doesn’t matter if the government can just sieze or hack your phone. Much better to use non-Western social media and messaging apps.

      • istanbullu@lemmy.ml
        1·
        3 months ago

        Dis you miss the entire Snowden revelations? Western governments are hostile to online privacy and freedom.

    • einkorn@feddit.org
      34·
      3 months ago

      If Telegram wasn’t good for privacy, Western governments would not be trying to shut it down.

      They are not trying shutdown Telegram, they are trying to control it.

      E2EE is nice, but doesn’t matter if the government can just sieze or hack your phone. Much better to use non-Western social media and messaging apps.

      What kind of argument is this supposed to be? Governments can size your phone anywhere … oh wait … lemmy.ml … yeah, I see…

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
        11·
        3 months ago

        They like to poke fun at the “west” but Russia, China and others are all worse some how. At least in most countries it is controversial to attack journalists and encryption

        • einkorn@feddit.org
          11·
          3 months ago

          In case you are serious: Lemmy.ml is known for being a tankie instance. So a nonsensical anti-west statement makes a lot more sense considering the instance the user chose.

    • vxx@lemmy.world
      13·
      3 months ago

      If it would be a good tool for privacy, Russia would try to shut it down the same way they did with Signal.

      • istanbullu@lemmy.ml
        4·
        3 months ago

        Russia tried for years to ban Telegram. They stopped after Telegram managed to keep itself alive by proxies.

      • chayleaf@lemmy.ml
        3·
        3 months ago

        they did ban it, and everyone still used it (Telegram was good at evading the bans back then, but eventually Roskomnadzor became decent at banning it), and then they unbanned it, whatever that means