Pavel Durov’s arrest suggests that the law enforcement dragnet is being widened from private financial transactions to private speech.
The arrest of the Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France this week is extremely significant. It confirms that we are deep into the second crypto war, where governments are systematically seeking to prosecute developers of digital encryption tools because encryption frustrates state surveillance and control. While the first crypto war in the 1990s was led by the United States, this one is led jointly by the European Union — now its own regulatory superpower.
Durov, a former Russian, now French citizen, was arrested in Paris on Saturday, and has now been indicted. You can read the French accusations here. They include complicity in drug possession and sale, fraud, child pornography and money laundering. These are extremely serious crimes — but note that the charge is complicity, not participation. The meaning of that word “complicity” seems to be revealed by the last three charges: Telegram has been providing users a “cryptology tool” unauthorised by French regulators.
Signal can very clearly see all the messages you send if they just add a bit of code.
And then no one will use Signal because there is no way someone won’t notice immediately. It is OPEN SOURCE. Look at the xz backdoor that got figured out in less than a day. Signal is more popular than a Linux tool for extracting files. Stupid statement.
But with that small tweak to their front end they can “VERY CLEARLY SEE that the platform is being misused.” So per your own argument, the government should force them to do so (and presumably anyone that’s uncomfortable with that can “just not use Signal”).
Stop with the what-aboutisms because this is not the current situation.
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