Telegram CEO Remains in Custody as French President Macron Denies 'Political'...

[ABCbits]

Telegram CEO Remains in Custody as French President Macron Denies 'Political' Move

The Paris prosecutor’s office said it can keep Pavel Durov detained until Wednesday as Macron fights claims of political motivations.

French president Emmanuel Macron pushed back forcefully on Monday against growing outrage in the tech community over the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, insisting that the surprise move was “in no way a political decision.”

“I have seen false information regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov,” Macron posted to Twitter. “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.”... Read more here.


The news mention this arrest is due to telegram messaging feature. But who knows whether French government will bring TON as additional excuse to arrest him. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

[Kemarit]

It's just very weird that France was arrested him. I mean if Durov knows that there are court order from French government that he will be arrested, then why he flew on that country?

And if some entity has problems with Telegram for what they deem "facilitating terrorism, drug sales, and fraud by refusing to moderate communications between Telegram users", then why not file a against Durov?

For me this is just power tripping on the part of the French government, they don't have any legal jurisdiction to held him up to Wednesday or more than 24 hours.

[TomPluz]

It's just very weird that France was arrested him. I mean if Durov knows that there are court order from French government that he will be arrested, then why he flew on that country? And if some entity has problems with Telegram for what they deem "facilitating terrorism, drug sales, and fraud by refusing to moderate communications between Telegram users", then why not file a against Durov?

Whenever the government would be denying that something is not a political move, in most cases it is. Maybe France actually do not care the rule of the law...the thing is to file a case in court and have Durov respond to the case so he can be tried fairly and not be prosecuted just because he is the founder of a platform the government maybe don't like to their bones. I am hoping for the resolution of this case as there is a big pressure on the French government to do what is right and to follow the procedures in lawful manner.

[Zed0X]

~ But who knows whether French government will bring TON as additional excuse to arrest him.

Nah that will be too obvious. The accusations of drug trafficking and child abuse are good enough excuse for the arrest. If they need more, they might just add the Russia-Ukraine conflict as part of the reason because TG is said to be used by Russian soldiers.

[Vision pro]

It's just very weird that France was arrested him. I mean if Durov knows that there are court order from French government that he will be arrested, then why he flew on that country?

And if some entity has problems with Telegram for what they deem "facilitating terrorism, drug sales, and fraud by refusing to moderate communications between Telegram users", then why not file a against Durov?

For me this is just power tripping on the part of the French government, they don't have any legal jurisdiction to held him up to Wednesday or more than 24 hours.

If Pavel Durov knew there was a court order for his arrest in France, why he flew—it's hard to understand.  Maybe he didn't know about the order, or maybe he was doing his best to obey the law.  Besides, it could be that he didn't think France would stop him. If any entity wants to sue Telegram or Durov, they can.  But, sometimes government law enforcement agencies prefer to take direct action if they believe that the organization or individual is a risk to society. Whether the French government has the right to detain someone for a long period of time depends on local and international laws.  Generally, someone detained for more than 24 hours has to be produced in court.  But if there's a warrant against him in another country or an order from an international organization, they can take action against him. So, it's really a complicated matter, and maybe it will become clearer after more information.

[Gurujebs]

The news mention this arrest is due to telegram messaging feature. But who knows whether French government will bring TON as additional excuse to arrest him. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

It will be ridiculous of French government to include TON as a lawsuit against him. For what exactly? Telegram initially wanted to take Telegram and work with the parent company but many government were against that and a independent company was formed as TON, now tell me why will Ton be involved in this law suits?

It's just like saying X platform is going to be prosecuted for allowing Bitcoin and ethereum to be received by it's users. I am actually waiting for Elon Musk to have the same treatment the day he is going to enter France, bunch of government that love pointing fingers for nothing.

[MrSpasybo]

Whenever the government would be denying that something is not a political move, in most cases it is. Maybe France actually do not care the rule of the law...the thing is to file a case in court and have Durov respond to the case so he can be tried fairly and not be prosecuted just because he is the founder of a platform the government maybe don't like to their bones. I am hoping for the resolution of this case as there is a big pressure on the French government to do what is right and to follow the procedures in lawful manner.

Regardless of the French president's statement, the fact remains that Durov has been detained and cannot freely travel or explore Paris. The unusual thing is that we still don't have detailed information about the charges and proposed penalties for Durov. Everything is being delayed on purpose and investors in the Ton ecosystem are panicking.

I support the values of freedom and privacy that are being upheld on Telegram, which is also the reason why this platform has about 900M users. I also went through a period when Telegram was banned in Russia in 2018, so I believe that Telegram will continue to exist to serve users. I hope Ton devs can create a dApp similar to Telegram for the community to use, or Durov can bring Telegram to Ton and escape legal liability related to future serious charges.

[Lucius]

The question arises whether he knew he was going to be arrested or not - so while some information says that the French activated the arrest warrant only when he was on his way to Paris, others claim that such a warrant has existed for a long time and that he flew to Paris only because a female person allegedly persuaded him to do so.

However, it should not be seen as a disaster, because maybe he will be released in a few days - and even if he is not, Telegram can still function as before, and he does not have to give the French authorities any data or enable administrator access to his app.

I only know that Telegram is full of scammers, and that it is used by very bad people such as pedophiles, terrorists and criminals - and that no one can turn a blind eye to such things, citing freedom of expression and some kind of censorship.

All that needs to be done is to make a decision on zero tolerance for such content and remove it as soon as possible.

[electronicash]

The question arises whether he knew he was going to be arrested or not - so while some information says that the French activated the arrest warrant only when he was on his way to Paris, others claim that such a warrant has existed for a long time and that he flew to Paris only because a female person allegedly persuaded him to do so.

However, it should not be seen as a disaster, because maybe he will be released in a few days - and even if he is not, Telegram can still function as before, and he does not have to give the French authorities any data or enable administrator access to his app.

I only know that Telegram is full of scammers, and that it is used by very bad people such as pedophiles, terrorists and criminals - and that no one can turn a blind eye to such things, citing freedom of expression and some kind of censorship.

All that needs to be done is to make a decision on zero tolerance for such content and remove it as soon as possible.

what was the warrant about that he knew prior to his travel to Paris?

because people already speculated this is an attack to freedom of speech. regardless of there are scammers or pedos in telegram, this is still not the way to control him by arresting. while Putin as considered dictator didn't arrest him but the Russian authorities orders Durov to turn users data to authorities as what he said on Tucker's interview.

but there are political channels in telegrams. even RT is there. even the Hamas channel is also in telegram which people see it the real purpose of this arrest are those political channels inciting riots.

[Jating]

The question arises whether he knew he was going to be arrested or not - so while some information says that the French activated the arrest warrant only when he was on his way to Paris, others claim that such a warrant has existed for a long time and that he flew to Paris only because a female person allegedly persuaded him to do so.

However, it should not be seen as a disaster, because maybe he will be released in a few days - and even if he is not, Telegram can still function as before, and he does not have to give the French authorities any data or enable administrator access to his app.

I only know that Telegram is full of scammers, and that it is used by very bad people such as pedophiles, terrorists and criminals - and that no one can turn a blind eye to such things, citing freedom of expression and some kind of censorship.

All that needs to be done is to make a decision on zero tolerance for such content and remove it as soon as possible.

what was the warrant about that he knew prior to his travel to Paris?

because people already speculated this is an attack to freedom of speech. regardless of there are scammers or pedos in telegram, this is still not the way to control him by arresting. while Putin as considered dictator didn't arrest him but the Russian authorities orders Durov to turn users data to authorities as what he said on Tucker's interview.

but there are political channels in telegrams. even RT is there. even the Hamas channel is also in telegram which people see it the real purpose of this arrest are those political channels inciting riots.

And it seems that there are more questions that answers here. But do you guys think that and it's hard to fathom there is no politics from behind assuming that Durov is Russian and that they are just hiding in the fact that Telegram or his company is allowing everything to happen in the background like bad people is using his apps? And because of this malicious actions from France, Durov is being pictured a hero and a freedom defender.

[Z-tight]

It will really be interesting to see how things progress in this case and for how long he will be held in custody, right now the charges are about illicit tx's, child sexual abuse and fraud. I don't know how the authority detaining him intend to prove their case against him or if this arrest is just a way to strike a sort of deal, we'll see.

[SamReomo]

Telegram CEO promoted privacy and that's why he was arrested and now it's clear that anyone who loves privacy and promotes it can get arrested if his/her platforms gain huge exposure.

I know some people with negative mindset used Telegram's privacy features in wrong way but that doesn't means the CEO of the platform may get arrested for others wrong actions.

I guess, the recent growth of crypto and crypto related airdrops are the reason behind his arresting but they created drama by giving other reasons and allegations which are false by the way.

[Zed0X]

~
But do you guys think that and it's hard to fathom there is no politics from behind assuming that Durov is Russian and that they are just hiding in the fact that Telegram or his company is allowing everything to happen in the background like bad people is using his apps? And because of this malicious actions from France, Durov is being pictured a hero and a freedom defender.

This is most likely more than what they are charging him right now. I'm also betting that it's not just France but agencies from other (allied) countries are acting behind the scenes too. They badly want information that could help them win against their rival/competitor country.

[Captain Corporate]

It was or it wasn't, that doesn't change the situation itself. If it was a political move and he is in jail, he is in jail, if its not a political move, he is still in jail so this doesn't really matter. You can consider the outcome as important, but the reality is that it doesn't matter if its political or not, the only thing that matters is that he gets his due and court sees it fairly and if they find any crimes to keep him in prison then he would be in prison. Thinking about "why" doesn't change the outcome, thinking about the further part is the only thing that matters which is why I think we should consider this important.

[Kemarit]

It's just very weird that France was arrested him. I mean if Durov knows that there are court order from French government that he will be arrested, then why he flew on that country? And if some entity has problems with Telegram for what they deem "facilitating terrorism, drug sales, and fraud by refusing to moderate communications between Telegram users", then why not file a against Durov?

Whenever the government would be denying that something is not a political move, in most cases it is. Maybe France actually do not care the rule of the law...the thing is to file a case in court and have Durov respond to the case so he can be tried fairly and not be prosecuted just because he is the founder of a platform the government maybe don't like to their bones. I am hoping for the resolution of this case as there is a big pressure on the French government to do what is right and to follow the procedures in lawful manner.

And it really looks like a political moved, as they want the apps to reveal to them who are those criminals or even terrorists or pedophiles or whatever they are looking, Durov will have to give them accessed to that data. And it doesn't matter what and how they can obtain that, in this case, it looks like legal to them, but we don't know in cross doors how they will force Durov or how Durov will accessed it in France.

Most likely this is what they wanted him to stay for at least till Wednesday. For sure, I'm seeing some groups around the world that will denounce what France did to Durov as it seems illegal for them to caught him up and traveling to their country without him knowing that we will be arrested once he land.