Telegram CEO Arrested

[bitchstewie]

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested at French airport

Musk next?

[Simbu]

Telegram's moderation is almost useless. Drug dealing and other illegal activity is prolific and more easily enabled because of Telegram. Can't say I'm surprised. Or have much sympathy. All the revenue, none of the responsibility.

[TonyToniTone]

France24 said:

France's OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offences including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, one of the sources said.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240825-tel...

bhstewie said:

Musk next?

Hysterics to one side, what do you think?

[Scrimpton]

Simbu said:

Telegram's moderation is almost useless. Drug dealing and other illegal activity is prolific and more easily enabled because of Telegram. Can't say I'm surprised. Or have much sympathy. All the revenue, none of the responsibility.

Mobile phones help with drug dealing, maybe they should lock up Tim Cook as well.

[bitchstewie]

The Musk comment was a little tongue in cheek - I expect there will soon be a whole raft of regulatory measures on the way to deal with X if Musk doesn't get a grip but that's for the Musk thread.

I haven't used Telegram and if I'm honest I thought it was supposed to be end-to-end encrypted?

Might have misunderstood that.

[thatsprettyshady]

bhstewie said:

The Musk comment was a little tongue in cheek - I expect there will soon be a whole raft of regulatory measures on the way to deal with X if Musk doesn't get a grip but that's for the Musk thread.

I haven't used Telegram and if I'm honest I thought it was supposed to be end-to-end encrypted?

Might have misunderstood that.

Chats are encrypted but the channels are not. Lots of drug dealing and other illegal stuff is easy to find with just a search, for example my dodgy IPTV service is dealt with entirely over Telegram.

[Carl_VivaEspana]

IRC chat is one of the foundational Internet blocks, Telegram is just a modern version of it.

The irony is that the Telegram founders left Russia to avoid being arrested there.

I would not have flown to France though, that was a dumb move.

[stuckmojo]

Certainly concerning

[768]

Carl_VivaEspana said:

IRC chat is one of the foundational Internet blocks, Telegram is just a modern version of it.

The irony is that the Telegram founders left Russia to avoid being arrested there.

I would not have flown to France though, that was a dumb move.

Internet freedom is under threat, the French certainly aren't immune to authoritarians in that respect.

I suspect technology will just evolve to deal with this, and that probably won't make the world a better place.

[grumbledoak]

In the information war, "moderation" is just another word for censorship. I don't think I would have flown to France though. Rumble's CEO Chris Pavlovski has just left (fled) Europe after French threats.

[paul.deitch]

But the information conduit is useful to us/the Americans. I imagine the French will be leaned on to find a reason to let him go. But what do I know.

[KAgantua]

thatsprettyshady said:

bhstewie said:

The Musk comment was a little tongue in cheek - I expect there will soon be a whole raft of regulatory measures on the way to deal with X if Musk doesn't get a grip but that's for the Musk thread.

I haven't used Telegram and if I'm honest I thought it was supposed to be end-to-end encrypted?

Might have misunderstood that.

Chats are encrypted but the channels are not. Lots of drug dealing and other illegal stuff is easy to find with just a search, for example my dodgy IPTV service is dealt with entirely over Telegram.

Username checks out

[James6112]

Scrimpton said:

Simbu said:

Telegram's moderation is almost useless. Drug dealing and other illegal activity is prolific and more easily enabled because of Telegram. Can't say I'm surprised. Or have much sympathy. All the revenue, none of the responsibility.

Mobile phones help with drug dealing, maybe they should lock up Tim Cook as well.

A poor analogy

[Mr Whippy]

Just use cryptocurrency, i2p, blah blah blah list goes on forever…

Totalitarian/paranoid governments don’t like actual free speech shocker!

[768]

James6112 said:

Scrimpton said:

Mobile phones help with drug dealing, maybe they should lock up Tim Cook as well.

A poor analogy

Why? The FBI took Apple rather than Cook to court, which seems more reasonable to me.

[Gareth79]

thatsprettyshady said:

bhstewie said:

The Musk comment was a little tongue in cheek - I expect there will soon be a whole raft of regulatory measures on the way to deal with X if Musk doesn't get a grip but that's for the Musk thread.

I haven't used Telegram and if I'm honest I thought it was supposed to be end-to-end encrypted?

Might have misunderstood that.

Chats are encrypted but the channels are not. Lots of drug dealing and other illegal stuff is easy to find with just a search, for example my dodgy IPTV service is dealt with entirely over Telegram.

I think you are referring to public chats and nearby chats, which is a different concept. They are all still encrypted between the client and Telegram's server, but not what is known as "end to end" because for group chats the message needs to be unencrypted and then encrypted on the server to be distributed to each participant. They still cannot be observed by intercepting a connection (wiretapping) though, the only way to monitor a group is to either join the group (if it's public, or you can get invited or accepted), intercept on a person's device itself, or intercept on a Telegram server.

I think the concern is more private/unlisted groups used for illegal activities where everybody is vetted and the authorities don't have a way to intercept the messages.

[Scrimpton]

James6112 said:

Scrimpton said:

Simbu said:

Telegram's moderation is almost useless. Drug dealing and other illegal activity is prolific and more easily enabled because of Telegram. Can't say I'm surprised. Or have much sympathy. All the revenue, none of the responsibility.

Mobile phones help with drug dealing, maybe they should lock up Tim Cook as well.

A poor analogy

Explain why

[Douglas Quaid]

Has he got involved in anything himself, or is this just because he doesn’t stop people using his platform for nefarious activities?

[grumbledoak]

Douglas Quaid said:

Has he got involved in anything himself, or is this just because he doesn’t stop people using his platform for nefarious activities?

Of course he hasn't done these things himself. The US/EU want user data, wiretapping, and censorship. They are going after Rumble too. All in the context a wider war on freedom of information and speech.

You might note they haven't arrested Zuckerberg. That's not for lack of criminality on his platforms, but because he already rolled over.

[London424]

Douglas Quaid said:

Has he got involved in anything himself, or is this just because he doesn’t stop people using his platform for nefarious activities?

We should probably haul in the boss of Royal Mail. All the death threats and stalking letters. All the illegal drugs and god knows what else sent without being supervised.