Why Was Telegram CEO Arrested?
Let's get the facts straight.
Good morning.
Mitsui from web3 researcher.
Today we will summarize what we know at this stage (8/27) on the topic "Why was the Telegram CEO arrested?"I will summarize what we know at this stage (August 27) on the subject of "Why was the CEO of Telegram arrested?
In addition to a summary of the facts related to the arrest, the background of the arrested CEO, Pavel Durov, and the background of Telegram's establishment will also be explained.Please read to the end.
🔵Set the facts straight on the Telegram CEO arrest
👤.Durov's background and the founding of Telegram
💬Reasons and suspicions of his arrest
🔵Telegram Arranging the facts of the CEO arrest
First, let's lay out the facts regarding this arrest.
Arrested by French police at an airport north of Paris
On August 24, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested by French police as he arrived by private jet at Le Bourget airport north of Paris.
French authorities issued an official statement regarding the arrest the following day.
The reason for the arrest is that the arrest was made as part of a broader cybercrime investigation, including charges of providing "cryptology" services and tools. The action was taken as part of a judicial investigation launched on July 8, 2024, following a preliminary investigation initiated by the J3-JUNALCO (Cybercrime Countermeasures) section of the Paris Prosecutor's OfficeThe investigation was conducted as part of the
Several other charges, including "possession of indecent images of minors" and conspiracy to "launder proceeds from organized crime," are also listed.
Telegram, TON issues statement of opposition
In response to the arrest, Telegram and TON immediately issued statements to the contrary.
Telegram's statement asserted that "Telegram is in compliance with EU law" and that "it is unreasonable to claim that the platform or its owners are responsible for the misuse of their platform."
TON Blockchain has strongly expressed its support for Mr. Durov.
A campaign of opposition by the TON community has also begun.The protest movement has #FREEDUROV as its official hashtag, with a hooded dog as the iconic creative.
Many applications on TON have also joined this protest movement, changing their application icons and other actions.
Elon Musk and Tron founder Justin Sun have also strongly opposed the arrests and offered financial support.
Russian authorities also expressed opposition, and President Macron denied that it was a political move
Although Mr. Durov's background is described below, Russia still considers Mr. Durov to be a Russian citizen.Therefore, in response to this arrest, Russian authorities have expressed their outrage by requesting consular access from French authorities.Some Russian officials have described the arrest as an indirect act of hostility against Russia.
In response to these protests, French President Macron commented on his official X account that this was not a political decision, but part of an independent investigation.It is unusual for the president of a country to leave such comments.
These are the major events that have occurred in the past few days.
👤Background on Mr. Durov and the founding of Telegram
To understand the events leading up to this arrest, it is necessary to understand the line of events so far.Therefore, we will now briefly describe Mr. Durov's background and the background of Telegram's founding.
Pavel Durov was born on October 10, 1984 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia.He excelled from a young age, graduating at the top of his class from the Linguistics Department of St. Petersburg State University.
Durov said of his childhood, "In the then Soviet Union, I could see the flaws in the centralized system.When I was four years old, my family moved to Italy.And I was able to compare what I saw traveling in Italy with what I experienced in the Soviet Union.And I felt that, at least for me, the capitalist system and the free market system were definitely better.I went to school in Italy and became a European.However, the Soviet Union collapsed and our family had to return to Russia.My brother and I had a great time in Italy.My brother even appeared live on Italian television as a boy prodigy who could solve cubic equations at only 10 years old," he said.(Quote:Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram with over 900 million users, gives his first interview in front of the camera in 10 years and talks about the twists and turns that led to the birth of Telegram)
In 2006, Durov and his brother Nikolai launched a social networking service called VKontakte (later VK), which became known as the "Russian Facebook" and became a very popular platform in Russian-speaking countries.
However, around 2011, pressure from the Russian government began to increase.The government began demanding that anti-government posts be removed and that user information be provided.Durov continued to reject these demands and took a stand in defense of privacy and freedom of expression.
The Russian government has asked him to "comply with a request from the Russian leadership" or "sell his shares in the company, resign as CEO, and leave the country."
In 2013, Durov lost control of VK and was forced to leave the company.This experience made him realize the need for a more secure and free communication platform.
So in August 2013, Durov and his brother Nikolai founded Telegram, which features privacy and security-oriented features such as end-to-end encryption and automatic message deletion.
The background of Telegram's founding included the following elements
Protection of privacy: protecting users from surveillance and interference by governments and corporations.
Freedom of expression: Provide a free communication space free from censorship.
Enhanced security: to use encryption technology to make messages more secure.
Global expansion: to provide services to users around the world, beyond national borders.
From there, Telegram's transition is as follows
2013:.
August: Telegram is founded by Pavel and Nikolai Durov.
October: The iOS version of the app is released.
Initial user base is approximately 100,000.
2014:.
January: Android version of the app released.
March: Number of users reaches 35 million.
October: Secret chat feature (end-to-end encryption) introduced.
2015:.
February: Web version of Telegram released.
September: The number of users exceeded 60 million.
Channel functionality is added, enabling one-way message delivery.
2016:.
February: Number of users reaches 100 million.
November: Instant View feature introduced, enabling faster display of web pages.
2017:.
March: Voice call feature added.
September: User base reaches 170 million.
2018:.
March: the number of users exceeds 200 million.
April: Telegram use banned in Russia (lifted in June 2020).
May: Privacy policy updated to comply with GDPR.
2019:.
March: enhanced message deletion capabilities.
October: Plans announced for group video calling capabilities.
2020: The first group video call feature is announced.
April: Number of users reaches 400 million.
August: Video calling feature released in beta.
2021: WhatsApp reaches 500 million users.
January: User base surpasses 500 million; WhatsApp's privacy policy changes bring in a large influx of users.
March: Group voice chat feature added.
August: Live streaming is introduced.
2022: The number of users exceeds 500 million.
January: Number of users exceeds 500 million, with 100 million monthly active users.
June: Premium membership service launched.
December: Anonymous SIM-free registration becomes available.
2023: The first
February: Addition of the Stories feature is announced.
July: User base surpassed 800 million.
The latest information announced that the number of users exceeded 900 million, and the company also announced that it was seeking an IPO.
💬Reasons and doubts about the arrest
The final section is a consideration.
Rather than a personal opinion, I will gather information from various articles on the Internet and speculate on the questions raised and the reasons for the arrest.
As noted above, Durov was born in Russia, but due to increased government pressure, he now lives in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Telegram is based, and has citizenship in that country and France.Forbes magazine estimates Durov's assets at $15.5 billion.
The first question that comes to mind here is that he has French citizenship.
Mr. Durov obtained his French passport in 2021 through a procedure for prominent foreigners that exempts them from the usual legal requirements, including having resided in France for at least five years.
This procedure is very rare, with only 10 to 20 cases processed each year, each reportedly requiring a high level of political support.
According to French law, any foreigner may be granted nationality under special rules provided that he speaks French and "contributes to the prosperity of France's influence and international economic relations through outstanding work," but Mr. Durov has never lived in France and any special ties to the countryHowever, Mr. Durov has never lived in France, and it is unclear what special ties he had with the country.
This suggests that there may have been some connection to the French government.
Is Telegram's response sloppy?Is an arrest justified?
"How Telegram played itself" to quote its contents.
First, we point out that the arrest is not due to the recently passed European Union Digital Services Act, but is based on French law, as Telegram noted in its statement, "in compliance with EU law" and that "Mr. Durov is traveling normally within the EU," but it appears that the EU is not involved and that this is a decision of French authorities.However, it appears that the EU is not involved and that this is a decision of the French authorities.
Also, the most common objection to the arrests is the issue of platform liability.Many point out that "criminal activity is also occurring at Meta and X, but the CEOs have not been arrested, so why was Telegram the only one arrested?"
The author of this article agrees with that opinion, but points out that it is clearly incorrect to say that Telegram's moderation is "within industry standards".
Telegram'sTerms of Service prohibitusers from posting illegal pornographic content or promoting violence on public channels.The Terms of Service prohibit users from posting illegal pornographic content or advertisements of violence on public channels, but implicitly permit users to share as much CSAM as they like on private channels.
Also, although Telegram claims to be an encrypted chat, it is apparently not strictly P2P encrypted except for secret chats.Thus, in principle, Telegram can see the contents of chats and can respond to censorship requests from the authorities.
Thus, although prohibited by its terms of use, it has been practically tacitly approved, and the fact that it possessed the means to approach terrorist organizations and other abusers, but left them alone, may have led to this arrest.
In fact, "Telegram is on another level: it has been a major ISIS stronghold for a decade, it tolerates CSAM, and it has been a major hub for ISIS for years.It has ignored reasonable [law enforcement] involvement for years.This is not 'light' content moderation; it's a completely different approach."said Brian Fishman, Meta's former head of counterterrorism, in a Threads post.
Summary, what's the future?
So far, we have organized the facts, Mr. Durov's background and Telegram transition, and some questions and opinions.(Please note that there may be some discrepancies in the information, though we have made a certain amount of scrutiny based on publicly available information.)
So, what will happen in the future?
Since the maximum amount of time he can be detained from his arrest is 96 hours (4 days), it is widely expected that he will be released once on the 28th.We await further information on what he will say there or whether it will lead to further detention.
From a web3 perspective, first of all, TON has been affected by the large drop.Also, many people are using Telegram to communicate, so if Telegram itself is regulated, a great number of people will be affected.
As for "responsibility as a platformer," there was the Winny case in Japan and the TornadoCash case in the crypto world.I don't know the real information here, so I will not mention it as a personal opinion.
However, I feel that this kind of event is inevitable for web3 technology, which places the concept of decentralized, state-confronted technology as its core value.Of course, I do not condone the misuse of the technology, but I feel that the state (people) judging it with an agenda is a concept at odds with decentralized technology, and that the true ideal is for it to be played down and improved through incentives and rules.
I think this incident is a very big deal, and I will await further news.
That concludes our report article on "Why Was the Telegram CEO Arrested?"
Disclaimer：I carefully examine and write the information that I research, but since it is personally operated and there are many parts with English sources, there may be some paraphrasing or incorrect information. Please understand. Also, there may be introductions of Dapps, NFTs, and tokens in the articles, but there is absolutely no solicitation purpose. Please purchase and use them at your own risk.
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mitsui
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