I wonder if this is related to Russia having access to telegram
Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
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Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#512Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stupid argument since those countries use Telegram for money laundering
North Korean meth is sold in bulk on Telegram channels in South Korea. Drug abuse is out of control and crypto currency is used by NK to sell drugs to SK and use funds for its regime.
How do they get it across the well-guarded border by the way?
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#513A bunch of people in comments here seem to misunderstand what telegram is. It is not just a messaging app, it is essentially a platform like twitter, with channels, hundreds of thousands of subscribers to those. While I fully support E2EE communication with no back-doors, I think it is perfectly fair for governments to have some control to take down large channels that are clearly against the law. I do not know the t…
So you endorse governments from the middle-east being in their right to delete anything they see as "illegal" because they are blasphemous for example?
There is a large spectrum between total anarchy and totalitarian regime, so in the same way there is a spectrum in free speech.
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#514It's all just speculation here. Maybe the French gov knows some stuff we don't. I always found that guy's story of living 'in exile' from Russia a bit suspect. And now Russian government officials are calling for his release. Need more information to make any kind of judgement. What I'm pretty sure of now is that this probably has nothing to do with encryption.
Telegram encryption is off by default and is a joke compared to Signal and others. This has nothing to do with encryption. I could list a dozen E2E encrypted things in common use that are all legal and online.
It has nothing to do with ordinary sorts of “bad” content either like hate speech or crypto scams or whatever. All of that can be found in abundance in many places, all of which are still online.
This is about something else. Note the standard cast of characters with certain well known alignments rushing out to defend him.
My top guess is direct involvement in scams, money laundering, CSAM, etc. I mean direct participation, not just running a chat used by others for these things.
My second guess is the upcoming election. Telegram was a big vector for coordinating the January 6th riots. Maybe there’s a network being taken down here.
Don’t know, will have to wait and see.
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#515They went full Ulbricht on him: terrorism, drugs, fraud, money laundering, piracy and involvement with child exploitation.
"Full Ulbricht" is quite a leading term. You could just as well say "full Bankman-Fried". From my reading it sounds like the man is as guilty as sin and knows it.
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#516Earlier quoted context omitted.
Usually courts are a lot more lenient with foreign citizens. Try to get jailed in Mexico as an French citizen - pretty hard unless you do obvious bad stuff.
From what I've seen, it's the opposite. Nobody wants an outsider coming into their territory and committing a crime. And it also makes you a flight risk, so that's going to factor badly into any pre-trial detention.
> Nobody wants an outsider coming into their territory and committing a crime.
Right but they don't want to deal with them either. They'll deport someone and ban them from entry (which can often be done essentially at will) rather than putting them through the whole legal process and potentially dealing with protests from their country of citizenship.
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#517Earlier quoted context omitted.
One detail that's missing from the English article is why he got arrested. The French article mentions: Why was he under threat of a search warrant? The Justice considers that the absence of moderation, cooperation with law enforcement and the tools offered by Telegram (disposable numbers, cryptocurrencies...) makes him an accomplice to drug trafficking, child-crime offenses and swindling.
Does this mean that according to EU, or France, E2E-encrypted platforms need to "cooperate" (provide backdoors)? Or does it refer to public channels only?
It means complying with an order from a judge. Just like every other social media or really any form of communications (including emails, phone calls, letters) that operate in France (and in the EU) do.
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#518Earlier quoted context omitted.
CEOs can be liable for intentional or grossly negligent non-compliance, among other things.
Owning a company providing a secure communication product is not negligent nor non-compliance.
> non-compliance
It depends to what they're being asked to be compliant with.
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#519Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is Signal "a kind of scam in that regard"?
Government funding? Mandatory phone number exposure? (or did they finally implement usernames?) A joke of a "registration lock pin" instead a proper 2FA to protect against sim-swap?
Funding source is irrelevant.
Re: Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
#520Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not encrypted by default. By default, everything goes through Telegram servers and can be read there.
I have always assumed that Telegram was a Russian op. Any doubts I had were resolved by this event. [0] > Deputy Russian State Duma Speaker Vladislav Davankov said he had sent an appeal to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to seek Durov's release. > "His arrest may be politically motivated and a tool to gain access to the personal information of Telegram users. This must not be allowed," the state-run RIA Novosti news a…
Wikipedia says that the same member of Duma was suggesting an idea to abolish homework at schools because his son asked for this when he learned that his father was elected. I would not treat him seriously.