That with the Durov case the EU has revealed its face illiberal It should be obvious to everyone by now.
Telegram is under attack and now it’s Musk’s turn. Those who do not conform know what they are getting into. Information control must be total: both for the war in Europe and for the American elections.
But there is an aspect to this story that also serves to shed light on organizations such as Amnesty International. At the time Durov was censored in Russia, Amnesty immediately intervened in his defense. Now that the attack has come from the EU: dead silence Pure hypocrisy.
Here’s what Amnesty International wrote in 2018:
“By attempting to block Telegram, Russian authorities are launching yet another assault on online freedom of expression in the country.”
“In recent years, Russian authorities have consistently targeted the last few spaces left for free expression: they have blocked portals that criticize them, imposed draconian rules on data storage, and declared media outlets registered outside Russia as ‘foreign agents’.”
“Now they intend to hit one of the most popular messaging applications, just because it had the courage and integrity to respect the privacy of its users. We hope that the Taganksy court will show the same respect for freedom of expression and will not bow to the repressive demands of the government.”
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In 2017, Roskomnadzor demanded that Telegram comply with the law requiring all online service providers to register in Russia and hand over encryption keys to the FSB, the federal security service.
Telegram granted the first request but its founder Pavel Durov refused to comply with what he called “laws incompatible with our privacy policies.”
The case in a nutshell:
- August 24th Paul Durovfounder of Telegramwas arrested in Paris where his plane had stopped at Le Bourget airport.
- The French prosecutor extends the arrest without indicating the charges.
- On August 26, after 48 hours, the prosecutors issued a statement to explain that Durov is accused of 12 counts of indictment: that is, complicity in a series of crimes committed on his platform, including fraud, drug trafficking, child pornography, cyberbullying, organized crime and promotion of terrorism. The failure to moderate content, and the failure to cooperate with the police, would essentially make him complicit in what happens on Telegram where, let’s remember, 1 billion users are registered.
- In a statement, Telegram said the platform “respects EU laws” and that its CEO “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.”
- There Russia protest, accusing the US of being behind the arrest of the father of Telegram who is of Russian origin (now with various citizenships, including French). According to Peskov the arrest “can be considered political, if France does not provide serious evidence of his guilt“.
- Emmanuel Macron he is forced to clarify that the arrest “is not a political act” but follows a banal investigation started on July 8 and conducted by the judiciary which is “independent”.
- Pretrial detention can last a maximum of 96 hours, until tomorrow, August 28.
- Telegram It is widely used in countries where autocracies limit communications, managing to guarantee the privacy of users. It is widely used by the armies and bloggers of Ukraine and Russia. Durov has declared himself “neutral” on the conflict.
- In 2014, Durov clashed with the Kremlin and was forced to leave Russia: he refused to provide the authorities with information about the VKontakte profiles of activists of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. He also refused to block Alexei Navalny’s social media page.