Is Durov a New Assange? Or Is Musk the Next Durov? The Durov Affair reveals that society is shifting from “a revolt of the public” to a digital “big state.”
After four days in custody, Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov has been placed under formal investigation and ordered to remain in France under judicial supervision, with a bail set at 5 million euros. The allegations include a vast number of crimes, most notably “complicity in managing an online platform to enable illegal transactions,” according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau. She also says that Telegram had appeared in multiple criminal cases but showed “near total absence of a response” to authorities’ requests for cooperation.
So far, Durov’s “complicity” seems to involve, first, creating and maintaining a platform used by criminals, and second, Telegram’s alleged failure to address illegal activities. If Durov did not commit those crimes personally, then he was arrested for the “lack of moderation” and the “failure to cooperate with authorities.”
Considering the range of charges, the investigation will likely last months, maybe years, turning the breaking news about an unprecedented arrest into an ongoing “Durov Affair,” which will involve issues far beyond the immediate allegations against Durov and Telegram. Besides concerns over “censorship vs. online safety,” the case will signify the completion of institutions’ adaptation to digital challenges. Institutional control over the public sphere and people’s lives was shattered by the initial spread of the internet; now the institutions are regaining control. The state is tightening its grip.
Out of Control
Telegram is not just a popular text messaging app; it is an ecosystem that also includes news and expert channels, photo and video sharing, and online communities of all kinds—from local to professional to hobbyist. The app offers encrypted communication that is impossible to crack. The feature seems to be attractive to criminals and terrorists. But regular people—almost 1 billion of them around the world—also enjoy Telegram. To compare: X/Twitter has about 340 million monthly users. Telegram is used by 45% of online users in India, almost 40% in Brazil, 34% in Mexico, and so on.
There is one more specific category of users that particularly values encrypted messaging: political dissidents and protesters. Telegram played a significant role in the 2017-2018 Iranian protests, as more than half of the population there uses the app. The 2020-2021 anti-Lukashenko protests in Belarus were even labeled the “Telegram Revolution,” mirroring the “Twitter revolutions” of 2009-2011.
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www.discoursemagazine.com/p/is-durov-a-new-assange-or-is-musk
h/t Glenn
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