We’re starting to know more about Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest:
Durov was being temporarily detained on suspicion of involvement with distributing child sex abuse material and drugs, money laundering and working with organized crime, according to a press statement released by French prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
When news broke yesterday, I noticed several bloggers write that we didn’t know enough yet to really judge, a restrained take that I appreciate. I figured this might come down to refusal to honor search warrants, but could be deeper too.
David Lynch I think the question is whether they’re just counting “running Telegram” as all of these things, or whether there’s some direct involvement…
Manton Reece @david.lynch.wtf Yeah, I'm assuming that there has been some contact between law enforcement and Pavel or his team directly that would lead to this. But I guess we don't know yet.
💬 John Philpin I first heard about this when Tim Draper was screaming blue murder and thought at the time .. nah .. there’s more to this.
Joe Ross It may be related to Telegram’s open bragging about its distributed-infrastructure-as-subpoena-dodging-scheme. My wild guess is they’ll charge him with hindering one or more investigations, not for refusing to unencrypt anything, but for actively hindering government ability to obtain unencrypted data.
Manton Reece @joeross That makes sense. Telegram is walking a fine line between user privacy and openly thwarting governments. Seems risky for them.
