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Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

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Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#81

This seems like the Kim Dotcom situation again. Why are these service providers being punished for what their users do? Specifically, these service providers? Because Google, Discord, Reddit, etc. all contain some amount of CSAM (and other illegal content), yet I don't see Pichai, Citron, or Huffman getting indicted for anything. Hell, then there's the actual infrastructure providers too. This seems like a slippery s…

[flagged]

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#82

This seems like the Kim Dotcom situation again. Why are these service providers being punished for what their users do? Specifically, these service providers? Because Google, Discord, Reddit, etc. all contain some amount of CSAM (and other illegal content), yet I don't see Pichai, Citron, or Huffman getting indicted for anything. Hell, then there's the actual infrastructure providers too. This seems like a slippery s…

pour encourager les autres

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#83
There is so much oddness surrounding this.. First, I don't really see how you can prosecute ideas, because as much as authorities will try and narrowly-define this case as being about moderation (of a platform), and cooperation with authorities, ultimately this is really an attempt to prosecute the idea/concept of publicly available 'e2e' encrypted communications. Second though... How does that list of charges only amount to a maximum of 20 years ? lol

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#84
post #75
post #9

I really hope this doesn't become an "encryption bad" cudgel. > The main accusation by EU authorities concerns Telegram’s encrypted messaging services, which were allegedly used to facilitate organised crime. One investigator stated that ‘Telegram has become the number one platform for organised crime over the years’, underlining the perceived link between the platform’s privacy features and criminal activities. It's…

Telegram doesn’t have mandatory e2ee, which puts it in this kind of situation. Having data on crime committing and denying access to it from authorities is a crime itself in most countries.

Right, I think that's an important distinction to make, but it's not really one that's explored in the article.

The article doesn't say anything about E2EE specifically, but I think it would be understandable to "read between the lines" and assume that Telegram is in trouble for offering E2EE - but I think/hope that assumption would be incorrect.

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#85

I'm genuinely curious to what would happen with Signal if the same bad actors moved to their platform. Would France also be arresting its creators for not properly moderating and giving backdoors?

No need to imagine: https://signal.org/bigbrother/

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because those providers cooperate with authorities and moderate their content to a fairly large degree?

How does Meta cooperate with the authorities? Isn't Whatsapp supposed to be end-to-end encrypted?

Telegram is for the most part not end-to-end encrypted, one to one chats can be but aren't by default, and groups/channels are never E2EE. That means Telegram is privy to a large amount of the criminal activity happening on their platform but allegedly chooses to turn a blind eye to it, unlike Signal or WhatsApp, who can't see what their users are doing by design.

Not to say that deliberately making yourself blind to what's happening on your platform will always be a bulletproof way to avoid liability, but it's a much more defensible position than being able to see the illegal activity on your platform and not doing anything about it. Especially in the case of seriously serious crimes like CSAM, terrorism, etc.

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#87
post #15
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram doesn't have much to do with E2EE.

Can you, please, elaborate? Wasn't it their main feature and the selling point?

E2EE is optional on Telegram and not really convenient. You can create a private chat which will be E2E encrypted but this takes a few taps and pins to device. Most of the users don't bother. And the main target is not personal chats but channels which can be easily discovered and followed.

This is not an e2e battle, this is the hunt for channel owners. Frankly it is too easy to make a "local chat" and sell stuff. Durov has the data and this is his weakness and strength. Platform is viral but there are too much for one hands.

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because those services don't get shown reports of CSAM and then turn a blind eye to it and do nothing about it. A person witnessing a crime by itself is not a crime. However, a person witnessing a crime and choosing not to report it is a crime.

I don't think it's a crime not to report a crime, at least not where I live. But facilitating a crime, which is something you could accuse telegram of is.

You're technically right (I think). However, I believe if you witness a murder and know the murderer and the police asks you: "Do you know anything about X murder?" Then I think you're legally required to tell the truth here.

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#89

> jpost.com > • 5 hours ago > Pavel Durov, Telegram founder, arrested by France following warrant - The Jerusalem Post > The alleged offenses include: terrorism, narcotic supply, fraud, money laundering and receiving stolen goods. For those unaware, all channel on telegram are NOT ENCRYPTED. They are stored in plaintext on telegram servers. All chats that are not 'secret chat' mode (single device to single device) ar…

This is misinformation that Telegram stores chat data in plaintext on their servers.

It stores it encrypted with encryption keys split across the globe.

Not perfect, but multiple legal jurisdictions would have to be subpoenad for Telegram to read your non-secret chats.

Re: Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

#90
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use telegram for some group chats, but I'm not sure why tech-savvy people would like it so much – messages are not end-to-end encrypted which makes it an inferior choice compared to even whatsapp

I prefer Signal and it provides encryption.

Signal has the better protocol and the better organisation behind it, but inferior apps and UX. It's unfortunate, really.
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