patrick.net

This is Neoliberal Fascism.

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The authorities also charged Durov with refusing to cooperate with investigations into illegal activity on Telegram. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau cited “an almost complete absence of response from Telegram to judicial demands.”

...

Beccuau said Telegram had popped up repeatedly in investigations into child pornography, drug trafficking and inciting racial hatred online since the app’s launch in 2013. Other prosecutors around France and in other European countries noted the same trend when the Paris prosecutor consulted them, she said.

...

What is clear is that Telegram isn’t like U.S. Big Tech companies, which employ armies of lawyers and government relations executives to respond to demands from law enforcement. For years, the company ignored subpoenas and court orders sent by authorities, which piled up in a rarely checked company email address, according to a person close to Durov.

Honey trap came in from the cold? Likely one of those DID Monarch Satanic Ritual Abuse agents put on the sex track.

https://t.me/drue86/58226

Politico ran an update story yesterday headlined, “France charges Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, releases him on €5M bail.” Telegram’s chief executive was indicted on six charges and must remain in France. He must report in person to a local police station two times a week.

Durov was charged with managing an online platform to “enable” illegal transactions and “complicity” with child pornography, drug trafficking, and “online hate.” He’s not been accused of doing any of those things himself or even knowing about them.

The article didn’t discuss why other platforms like Facebook aren’t also being investigated.

It’s not like there isn’t abundant evidence that Facebook is doing just what Telegram is accused of doing, but worse. In late December, New Mexico sued Facebook civilly (for money) but didn’t charge anyone criminally:

Facebook and Instagram content
enabled child sexual abuse, trafficking:
New Mexico lawsuit
PUBLISHED WED, DEC 6 2023

The Facebook suit doesn’t just allege illegal material on the platform. The lawsuit claims that Instagram and Facebook included features deliberately designed to hook children and contribute to a youth mental health crisis.

In fact, New Mexico’s Attorney General told the judge that the case was not about hosting content at all. Instead, it is about Meta actively and intentionally pushing illegal material—far beyond what Durov’s been accused of doing. Still, no criminal charges have been filed against Meta. And even New Mexico’s tepid civil lawsuit does not include the platform’s chief executive. In March, a New Mexico judge dismissed Facebook’s CEO from the lawsuit.

I can’t wait to find out why Telegram is different.

French Newspaper Claims Macron Tricked Durov With Dinner Invite to Facilitate His Arrest
Paul Joseph Watson
28th August 2024

Telegram CEO allegedly told Paris police meeting with French President was reason for visiting France.

French newspaper Le Canard Enchaine published a report claiming that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was invited for a dinner by President Emmanuel Macron in order to trick him into being arrested. ...

Florian Philippot, leader of the Les Patriots Party, suggested that the dinner invite was a deliberate act of deception.

“Macron is perfectly capable of this kind of trickery, in order to fulfill the mission demanded by his masters: to put in jail all those who defend freedom of expression!” Philippot posted on X.

The arrest of Pavel Durov in France could be a turning point for free speech in the digital space, threatening to permanently cripple our understanding of privacy and its limits. Judging by media reports, the charges being readied against the Telegram founder appear to be less about his actions and more about controlling a platform known for its privacy protections.

The essence of the charges is that Telegram is allegedly being used for crimes including drug trafficking and child pornography, as well as hacking attacks. However, the same accusations could just as easily be brought against the creators of the iPhone and Android, since virtually no offense can be committed without using their products in one form or another. In a similar vein, it would be a good idea to ban the manufacture of small plastic bags because they are often used to sell drugs. This reminds us of the old question: Is the maker of a knife to blame if someone is stabbed to death with it? The answer is obvious — no, they are not. It is the perpetrator who is responsible for the crime, not the one who created the tools or technology that can be used for both legal and illegal purposes.

Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, addressed his recent arrest in France and faces charges over claims he enabled illegal transactions and failed to assist law enforcement.

Durov, currently out on €5 million bail, says the French authorities have misunderstood the company’s efforts:

"Thanks everyone for your support and love!

Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram.

This was surprising for several reasons:

1. Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests. Its email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles “Telegram EU address for law enforcement”.

2. The French authorities had numerous ways to reach me to request assistance. As a French citizen, I was a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai. A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France.

3. If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself. Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach. Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.

Establishing the right balance between privacy and security is not easy. You have to reconcile privacy laws with law enforcement requirements, and local laws with EU laws. You have to take into account technological limitations. As a platform, you want your processes to be consistent globally, while also ensuring they are not abused in countries with weak rule of law. We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance. Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue.

Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we are ready to leave that country. We've done it many times. When Russia demanded we hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated.

All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect. Even the fact that authorities could be confused by where to send requests is something that we should improve. But the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue.

We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports (like this or this ). We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.

However, we hear voices saying that it’s not enough. Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon.

I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger. Thanks again for your love and memes."