First Amendment

Matthew Petti | 8.26.2024 2:30 PM

Telegram is one of the last (mostly) uncensored frontiers of the internet. The messaging app allows users to message each other through both unencrypted and encrypted chats, and to create "channels" that other users can subscribe to. There's no feed with an algorithm to manipulate, and founder Pavel Durov has committed to never sharing user information with authorities.

That has made Durov a lot of enemies. A decade ago, Durov fled Russia after his previous social media company, VKontakte, was taken over by the government. (Since then, he spent most of his time in Dubai and obtained French citizenship in 2021.) Russia banned Durov's newer app Telegram in 2018 but then unblocked the app two years later. Countries like China and Iran have also banned Telegram.

Over the weekend, French authorities arrested Durov at the airport for complicity in fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, and promotion of terrorism. The French office in charge of combating crimes against children said that it had requested the arrest warrant for Telegram's "lack of moderation and cooperation" in the fight against "pedocriminality."

Durov's lawyer called it "absolutely ridiculous" to blame an app's founder for the behavior of users, comparing the arrest of Durov to "blaming a car........

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