Founder of telegram arrested in france

[sx_turbo]

As per title,

"Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the encrypted messaging service Telegram, was arrested around 8pm this Saturday evening as he got off his private jet on the tarmac at Le Bourget airport. Aged 39, this Franco-Russian was accompanied by his bodyguard and a woman.

The arrest was carried out by the gendarmes of the Air Transport Gendarmerie. Listed in the FPR (wanted persons file), Pavel Durov had arrived straight from Azerbaijan. He had a French search warrant issued by the OFMIN of the national directorate of the French judicial police issued on the basis of a preliminary investigation.

Why was he under threat of a search warrant?

Justice considers that the lack of moderation, cooperation with law enforcement and the tools offered by Telegram (disposable number, crypto, etc.) makes him an accomplice in drug trafficking, pedocriminal offences and fraud.

This search warrant was valid if, and only if, Pavel Durov was on national territory. "He made a blunder tonight. We don't know why... Was this theft just a stopover? In any case, he's in custody!", a source close to the investigation told TF1-LCI. Since he knew he was persona non grata in France, Pavel Durov had been in the habit of travelling to the Emirates, the countries of the former USSR, South America... He travelled very little in Europe and avoided countries where Telegram is under surveillance.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

OK.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Thank you RSS feed bot.

 

[Grim5]

Very nice, now arrest Musk

 

[Diddums]

Don't sit on the fence mate, tell us how you feel.

 

[Quartz]

This is concerning. I don't use Telegram myself, but given how the content is encrypted end-to-end how can he do anything about the content? Further, doesn't France have a Common Carrier defence? Otherwise they'd have to arrest the head of France Telecom.

 

[Bluecube]

My understanding is that Telegram messages are only encrypted end to end if you start a private chat. Not sure if all other messages are encrypted/ decrypted on Telegram servers but Telegram certainly isn’t as secure as many people think it is

 

[Hagar]

My understanding is that Telegram messages are only encrypted end to end if you start a private chat. Not sure if all other messages are encrypted/ decrypted on Telegram servers but Telegram certainly isn’t as secure as many people think it is

Hence his arrest.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Very nice, now arrest Musk

And Tim Cook if we’re going after CEOs of companies offering encrypted message platforms.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

This is concerning. I don't use Telegram myself, but given how the content is encrypted end-to-end how can he do anything about the content? Further, doesn't France have a Common Carrier defence? Otherwise they'd have to arrest the head of France Telecom.

Russian state has been using Telegram as they commit war crimes in Ukraine. This guy is in Putin's pocket. Zero sympathy for him.

 

[Quartz]

Russian state has been using Telegram as they commit war crimes in Ukraine. This guy is in Putin's pocket. Zero sympathy for him.

I’m sure they’ve also been using Whatsapp and Signal and many other applications.

 

[arknor]

is it because he won't put a backdoor in the app for the feds

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

is it because he won't put a backdoor in the app for the feds

or because its full of child porn, drug sales, weapons sales and they refuse to moderate it? Oh and countries should be going after the owners off all the social media apps that don't remove all those things off their apps.

 

[Quartz]

and they refuse to moderate it?

Why should they moderate it? Would you moderate the telephone system?

 

[Kainz]

is it because he won't put a backdoor in the app for the feds

Primarily this.

They don’t want Telegram to become too popular because then they can’t spy on their own lemming citizens.

 

[Richie]

or because its full of child porn, drug sales, weapons sales and they refuse to moderate it? Oh and countries should be going after the owners off all the social media apps that don't remove all those things off their apps.

Remove end-to-end encrypted content how exactly?

 

[Nemiyen]

Remove end-to-end encrypted content how exactly?

I guess the only solution is to not allow encryption.

Or employ a super duper computer to break the encryption and then spy on the conversations while pretending that end to end encryption is secure.

 

[potatolord]

I guess the only solution is to not allow encryption.

Or employ a super duper computer to break the encryption and then spy on the conversations while pretending that end to end encryption is secure.

Encrochat was compromised way before any arrests happened.

 

[Richie]

Encrochat was compromised way before any arrests happened.

I believe that involved the authorities taking control of the actual servers using Malware they secretly loaded onto them

EDIT: I had a better look at this as I couldn't understand why compromising the servers resulted in breaking E2EE as it would still be encrypted on the server. The police compromised the Encrochat servers with Malware which eventually got pushed to the individual devices. The compromised phones is what ultimately got hacked and the info lifted from the device before it was encrypted and sent I guess.

 

[Richie]

I guess the only solution is to not allow encryption.

E2EE is not illegal itself and is used to protect legitimate users e.g. journalistic sources, people in oppressive regimes etc so getting rid of it is not a great idea. I do, however, realise that while we protect one person's human rights, we are compromising someone else's... It's a tricky balance.

Or employ a super duper computer to break the encryption and then spy on the conversations while pretending that end to end encryption is secure.

The issue you have is that by allowing encryption to be broken for legal reasons, it opens up the possibility of allowing it to be broken for nefarious reasons meaning things like e-commerce and banking become vulnerable. Again, like above, its a tricky balance.