Pavel Durov’s arrest is not a free speech hill to die on | Opinion

When word broke that the billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov had been arrested in France over the last weekend in August, it became a flashpoint in the global battle over freedom of speech. But then the charges came, including that Telegram had protected users who shared pornographic images, among other crimes.

Even before the official charges were made public, online advocates for internet freedom-of free speech enthusiasts defending zealready speakers, stauncharguedefreefreedom—-free speech enthusiasts had begun to beginning-discussed the-speakers already expressed their-free-free-free-free-opposed in social-media platforms likesoon such as-free speech-in-social-free.

The irony of Pavel Durov being arrested in the West is profound, and the implications are frightening.

Our hidden masters are revealing what they’re planning, and what they fear—and they’re inadvertently telling us that speech FREE FROM SURVEILLANCE must be a top priority. The…

— Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) August 25, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a former independent presidential candidate in the 2024 election, shared a similar sentiment:

Recently, France took intod Pavel Durov, creator and confiscusure, the anonymous, unfiltered, unsuppressable creator & CEO of the encrypted, unfiltered Telegram platform, France hasht France, as well-speechat, wastel, France. The significance speech’s Telegrammarvelous.secrett Telegram, the world, Durov, the need forbidden France, the need to defenders’s France, the United States is Freedom of Speech

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 25, 2024

Elon Musk called these “dangerous times” in a post on X.

Dangerous times

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2024

French President Emanuel Macron, under fire that the action had been a political arrest, said it was run-of-the-mill law enforcement activities and not politically motivated. After the revelations in the charging document, it became clear that those who came quickly to Durov’s defense could be portrayed by a press corps ironically contemptuous as defenders of pedophilia.

The arrest 

Durov was arrested as part of an investigation by French authorities after allegations that the messaging service permitted crimes to occur on its platform. Durov said in April that governments have tried to collect information but that the app should remain neutral and not a geopolitical player.

Now, the self-professed libertarian has a cybersecurity gendarmerie unit, and France’s national anti-fraud police are grilling him while he sits in detention and awaits his first court appearance. 

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— Baptiste Robert (@fs0c131y) August 26, 2024

And since Telegram stores data on its servers, unlike other privacy-focused messaging apps like Signal, which encrypts client-side, refusing to comply with data requests can open the service up to enforcement actions. 

The wider context

Defenders of free speech were already on edge, and perhaps rightfully so. European laws on the books could be seen as an attack on free speech rights, and this is precisely what defenders of free speech were lashing out against when they heard of Durov’s arrest.

Simplifying, one such law is the Digital Services Agreement (Digital Services Agreement), a primary tool to control and suppressing online content deemed by authorities as false or misleading information. The term “X is not the hill to die on this occasion. This person may not be the hill to die on the hill to die on.

John Turley, Professor of Public Interest at George Washington University, told Fox News: “It is like arresting AT&T CEO, because the mob used the telephone to do its business.” The problem with Turley’s analogy is that AT&T is known for sharing information with the government in at least the Fairview program. Elon Musk, too, draws a line at illegal activity.

Durov is different because he is an “anything goes” tech tycoon. 

The real battlefield over free speech

Instead of championing in the role of advocacy fight against censorship, champions of free speech defenders. Those who defend free speech defenders, they will help them, defending the freedom of free speech defenders of children, even if by accidental accidental.

The fight over internet battles for our rightly, a battle over free speech is indeed already being fought – in simple and plain language: The struggle over freedom of access to access technology that protects privacy without the need for an intermediary service acts as a relay for the encrypted messages

A Telegram is a popular messaging service, in simpler and straightforward manner,

As for free speech defenders, their battle is elsewhere: defending decentralized tech that provides privacy without reliance on middlemen who can be strong-armed and compromised by governments.

Pavel Durov’s arrest is not a free speech hill to die on | Opinion
Kadan Stadelmann

Kadan Stadelmann is a blockchain developer, operations security expert, and Komodo Platform’s chief technology officer. His experience ranges from working in operations security in the government sector and launching technology startups to application development and cryptography. Kadan started his journey into blockchain technology in 2011 and joined the Komodo team in 2016.

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2024-09-03 14:27