by Enrico Oliari –
In the end Durov had to give in, also because the suspension of the French authorities would have triggered the cascade effect and forced European countries and perhaps even the United States to censor the t -Telegram channel. It all started on August 25 last year when Pavel Durov, the founder and owner of the famous social network (950 million users), was arrested at Paris-Le Bourget airport when he got off the pier his private, returning from Baku. A Russian, French, Nevisian and Emirati citizen, he had an arrest warrant pending against him from French authorities because he had consistently refused to hand over Telegram’s end-to-end chat and messaging codes, which are based in the United Arab Emirates and which he manages together with his brother Nikolaj, unwittingly encouraging links between criminal and terrorist groups. Durov had never given away codes and chats simply because privacy was Telegram’s strong point.
During his speech at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russian President Vladimir Putin shared the view that countries cannot afford unmonitored communications for security reasons, but questioned why Durov was sent to detention, while other leaders on similar platforms were not treated the same.
Last night the surrender of Durov arrived via Telegram, “interrogated by the police in Paris for 4 days” despite the fact that “Telegram had an official representative in the EU (…) whose email address was available publicly to anyone” and “the French authorities had many ways to contact me and ask for help.”
The owner of Telegram then explained that “Sometimes we cannot agree with national regulators on the right balance between privacy and security, and in those cases, we are ready to leave that country. We have already done this many times: when Russia asked to transfer cryptographic keys for surveillance, we refused and Telegram was banned in Russia. When Iran asked to ban the channels of peaceful activists, we refused and Telegram was banned in Iran. We are ready to leave markets that are not compatible with our principles, because we do not do it for the money. We are driven by the intention to do good and protect people’s basic rights, especially in places where these rights are being violated.”
Durov then admitted “But we hear many voices saying that this is not enough. The rise of Telegram users to 950 million has created challenges that could make it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. So I set my own personal goal to ensure significant improvements in this regard. We have already started this process internally and will provide more information on our progress shortly.”
Durov’s statement was followed by a company statement according to which “moderation will begin on private channels.” The company updated its policy and removed the statement that private conversations were protected from moderation requests. Users can -now notify moderators of illegal content in private groups The company also indicated the email address where you can send a request to the moderators to remove the illegal content. link the reported link.”
In 2014 Durov had just resigned from the popular (in Russia) social network V-Kontakte (VK), which he founded, in order not to interfere, as requested by the Moscow authorities , the page of Alexei Navalny and to provide the Russian authorities with information about the identity of the demonstrators against the annexation of Crimea.
Durov, 39, was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), but he grew up in Tornino where he stayed until the age of 17, because his father taught Russian philosophy there. In the past he searched in vain in Western Europe for a home for his social media, but everywhere in the libertarian European Union the authorities said that the confidential data of his social media usage, so he moved Telegram’s headquarters to the United Arab Emirates.
France went ahead: she arrested him to force him to surrender.
