Popular social media app Telegram has quietly made changes to its privacy policy that will now allow users to report private conversations, an attractive feature that many other platforms did not allow along with the app’s very lax rules regarding free speech.
The changes came after Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France on August 24th. Reclaim The Net reported that he was apprehended because he was unwilling to change the stringent encryption and privacy policies on his platforms, believing that the app prevents thorough criminal investigations and enables the spread of illicit content, which made him and his app a target of criticism by Western policymakers.
The tech outlet reported:
The arrest was executed by members of the GTA (Gendarmerie of Air Transport), acting on a French search warrant. This warrant, issued by the OFMIN of the national directorate of the French judicial police, was based on allegations that Telegram’s operational policies — specifically its lack of censorship and lack of cooperation with law enforcement’s censorship demands, along with features such as disposable phone numbers and cryptocurrency transactions — indirectly support illicit activities.
Following his arrest, Durov was notified by ONAF (National Anti-Fraud Office) investigators and placed in police custody. He was scheduled to appear before an investigating judge on Saturday evening with the potential for multiple charges to be brought against him on Sunday, including those related to terrorism, narcotics, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and more.
An investigator confidently told TF1/LCI, “Pavel Durov will end up in pre-trial detention, that’s for sure.” They added, “On his platform, he allowed countless crimes and crimes to be committed for which he does nothing to moderate or cooperate.”
In response to criticism of Durov’s arrest, French President Emmanuel Macron took to social media and attempted to say nothing nefarious was happening, claiming it was “in no way a political decision.”
The list of charges levied against the Telegram founder are as follows:
- Complicity – web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal
transaction in organized group, - Refusal to communicate, at the request of competent authorities, information
or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed
by law, - Complicity – possessing pornographic images of minors,
- Complicity – distributing, offering or making available pornographic images of
minors, in organized group, - Complicity – acquiring, transporting, possessing, offering or selling narcotic
substances, - Complicity – offering, selling or making available, without legitimate reason,
equipment, tools, programs or data designed for or adapted to get access to
and to damage the operation of an automated data processing system, - Complicity – organized fraud,
- Criminal association with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable
by 5 or more years of imprisonment, - Laundering of the proceeds derived from organized group’s offences and
- crimes,
- -Providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without certified
- declaration,
- Providing a cryptology tool not solely ensuring authentication or integrity
monitoring without prior declaration, - Importing a cryptology tool ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring
without prior declaration.
Durov was released on a €5 million bail, with strict conditions that included a prohibition on leaving France and mandatory twice-weekly police visits.
The week following Durov’s arrest, the European Union then launched an investigation into the number of users the app has in the bloc, and whether or not the number Telegram reported to the EU is accurate. In order to comply with the bloc’s controversial and sweeping Digital Services Act (DSA) passed last year, that gives politicians serious power to effectively censor and have whatever content they want removed across all major platforms. In order to fall within compliance, the DSA views platforms with 45 million users as a ‘very large platform’ and therefore subject to EU controls.
About a week later, Durov would appear to have been bullied into changing some of the app’s privacy settings.
Telegram now allows users to report “illegal content” in private chats for review by moderators, per to an update to its FAQ page. The privacy policy used to say, “All Telegram chats and group chats are private between their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.”
Durov would later take to Telegram to respond to criticisms and concerns, saying:
The claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports (like this or this). We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.
Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon.
A Telegram spokesperson also told The Verge: “On Telegram you could always report messages from any group to moderators, this acts like forwarding. Private chats are still private too – although you could always report a new incoming chat to moderators by using Block > Report. Anyone can check Telegram’s open source code and see there were no changes.”
“The FAQ change only made it clearer how to report content on Telegram, including via DSA. The removed language was never related to content reporting,” the spokesperson added.
In April, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Durov claimed that the United States government attempted to “break into Telegram,” and access critical data via backdoor maneuvering.
He told Tucker that the last time he visited the U.S. a Telegram employee, “an engineer (…) and there was an attempt to secretly hire my engineer behind my back by cyber security officers or agents,” he said. He suspects “They were curious to learn which open-source libraries are integrated to the Telegram app. You know, on the client side.”
They were trying to persuade him (the engineer) to use certain open-source tools that he would then integrate into the Telegram code that, in my understanding, would serve as backdoors.
Durov explained
Western media for years had railed against Telegram, claiming that it was “dangerous” and should be avoided.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
And so goes another free speech platform…
I never used Telegram (though I never really used any social media platform), but Telegram was one of the last few platforms that stayed neutral and allowed people to say what they wanted, and actually had encryption to protect the conversations. Looks like Durov was harassed into capitulating. It’s all downhill from here.
I have said more than several times already that we will need to eventually, somehow, go “underground” and return to old-fashioned letter-writing campaigns, because the digital world will be off limits in the not-so distant future, specifically when the digital IDs are mandated.
Christina Maas for Reclaim The Net has a good article providing a better background into Durov and how Telegram came about, and how he created the app because he would not comply with the Kremlin’s censorship of VK.
The DQ Institute: The Social Credit Score To Become A Global Citizen To Use The Internet
Proverbs 29:5 A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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” . . . return to old-fashioned letter-writing campaigns . . . ” <——YES!!!
Can you be my pen pal? I missed receiving hand written letters. That is something I was longing for. Everything is compromised. As long as we use military worldwide web to catch you, you do not have any privacy and freedom. The evil eye of Sauron will always be watching.
Personally, no social media for me. I write. I talk – face to face. Anything else is like you said!
Pavel Durov Per Wikispooks is a WEF Young Global Leader 2017, makes sense now…..