this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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The head of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been charged by the French judiciary for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the messaging app but avoided jail with a €5m bail.

The Russian-born multi-billionaire, who has French citizenship, was granted release on condition that he report to a police station twice a week and remain in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.

The charges against Durov include complicity in the spread of sexual images of children and a litany of other alleged violations on the messaging app.

His surprise arrest has put a spotlight on the criminal liability of Telegram, the popular app with around 1 billion users, and has sparked debate over free speech and government censorship.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

The problem is that those guys comply with the requests from governments.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

do you agree with this arrest or are you pointing out the double standards ?

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago

Don't leave out Spez.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Telegrams moderation leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not saying they should look into or give governments people's private conversations but I am saying that certain public features of telegram that do allow you to report illegal materials have been used to spread them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

certain public features of telegram that do allow you to report illegal materials have been used to spread them.

I don't understand, what do you mean? Does clicking "report" on a message not simply send a report to moderators only?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I do wonder how much "report" does.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Pretty sure Discord keeps tons of data on their users and readily complies with warrants.

I mean, they shut down tons of Yuzu and Yuzu clone discord servers for Nintendo.

I think they're already in the good graces of those kind of folks.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

So to make it clear, it's because their company actually holds some data for clients that these governments want access to - because telegram is not peer-to-peer, unless you set a chat to private.

In essence Telegram as a company holds a lot of data that the French authorities want access to...

This comment brought to you by the Signal gang.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Nobody is coming after Signal because nobody uses Signal. Telegram has a user base of almost 1 billion.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

If you want to continue using Signal, you should fight for the right of others to use Telegram. "First they came for them and I said nothing". The EU and others are trying hard to control people's private messaging.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Telegram has no end to end encryption by default.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is that the point here? Telegram is not a messaging app, it have that functionality but it does not revolve around that. And there is e2ee if you enable it. Thanks

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

But Telegram IS a messaging app? Their motto is literally "a new era of messaging".

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

And none for group chats.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah, I'm siding with the French government on this one at first blush. E2EE platforms are a necessary tool for combating government overreach and corporate surveillance. But if you willingly make a platform that's not E2EE, the idea of users being able to share this vile shit being a "necessary evil" toward the greater societal good completely falls apart. If you 1) have this vile content on your platform, 2) know it exists, 3) can trivially combat it in a targeted manner, and 4) choose not to, then you're complicit in its distribution.

I have no sympathy for a CEO who tries to dupe their userbase into believing their app is private and then not even take advantage of the one single ethical benefit to the platform not being E2EE.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

That's a wild way of twisting the logic. Just because the platform doesn't fall under your e2ee definition doesn't mean they had to do something that is only possible on purely cloud services.

The reason for arrest doesn't even have anything to do with encryption. All content that facilitates mentioned crimes is public. Handling it shouldn't involve any backdoors or otherwise service-side decryption.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

It is about encryption though. Since it's possible for him to get access to anything said in those group chats, they asked him to provide all Telegram has on those users and chats. He didn't, he got arrested.

He wouldn't have been in as much trouble if those chats were encrypted and Telegram couldn't know anything about what's said in what chat by which user.

Because hw wouldn't be "betraying" his users by giving everything that was asked of him by the authorities.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not to whatabout it but under this logic we got other "CEO"s who should see a similar treatment.

Will they?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Wording is confusing. Here are some better takes that sound valid and are true:

  • Telegram's e2ee is only available for chats of 2 people, and only on official mobile client.

  • Telegram's e2ee is a feature you have to enable whenever you need it (called secret chats).

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

and only on official mobile client.

This is incorrect, it is also available in other mobile clients (at least those which are forks of the official one).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

And telegrams e2ee destroys all cool features it originally had

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