Telegram Forced to Surrender

French authorities arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov last month for permitting encrypted messaging on his app that could not be accessed by governments. France claimed that Durov was permitting illegal activities to occur on Telegram. Public safety is always the ruse they employ to remove our freedoms. Unfortunately, Telegram has been forced to surrender and permit the European Union and other governments to access private chats.

The blockchain industry was built on the promise of decentralization, but ended up being concentrated in the hands of a few who began to abuse their power.

— Pavel Durov (@durov) November 30, 2022

Telegram has removed language from its FAQ page that once stated “we do not process any requests” related to accessing private messages. The security and encryption is one of the primary reasons that people sought out Telegram. Are we to believe all 950 million users were criminals? No. People have been prohibited from speaking out against government everywhere and this was one of the final frontiers that permitted free speech.

Thanks everyone for your support and love!

Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram.…

— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 6, 2024

“Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue,” Durov posted on X. His arrest came suddenly and without notice. He noted that his organization has an official representative within the EU who is responsible for responding to all requests, but that did not matter as the authorities wanted to send a strong message. “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a simplistic approach. Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools,” the CEO continued.

The government will not permit big tech to operate freely. Everyone is assumed guilty until proven innocent. They fear the people openly communicating and sharing ideas, especially revolutionary ones that question the status quo and current regimes. We should expect to see more restrictions as we move toward 2032 when governments will ultimately lose this battle against the people.