In case you missed yesterday’s headlines, Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, has been indicted in France on charges of “complicity inn the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime, and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement.” [Joseph Menn, Washington Post, August 28, 2024.]

After four days of questioning — four days! — he has also been ordered to post a 5 million euro ($5.6 million) bond, and is barred from leaving France. With his multi-billion-dollar fortune, the bond should be no problem; but he’s not going to like being tied down in one place for any length of time.

And his 950 million users are not going to be happy at the prospect of possibly losing the protections of Telegram’s services, which include optional encryption of one-on-one conversations, and absolute privacy of all of their data . . . a good bit of which, it seems, is of a criminal nature. There are probably a lot of very nervous terrorists, kiddie porn distributors, and money launderers out there today — not to mention governmental and other users in Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Oops!

But the principal questions remain: As the CEO of Telegram, is Pavel Durov liable for his clients’ actions? Or, alternatively, by refusing to turn over their information, is he complicit in their crimes?

As one who has nothing to hide, I find this fascinating, and particularly from a legal standpoint. I’m a firm believer in privacy and free speech. But I also despise seeing the scariest and smarmiest of criminals (and governments) getting away with their nefarious activities under the umbrella of freedom of speech.

Quite frankly, I would not want to be one of the judges in this case.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/29/24