[liberationtech] The arrest of Telegram's Durov

[Kate Krauss]

Hi everyone,

It feels like a decade since I posted here. As a side project, I spent
several obsessive weeks doing everything I could to convince Biden to
resign from the presidential campaign. What have you been up to? What have
you been thinking about?

I am following the arrest of Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov, which took place
while many French people are on vacation. According to *Libération*, he is
accused of complicity in the possession of child porn, drug trafficking,
and organized fraud. Also, "criminal association with a view to committing
a crime" (conspiracy, I guess?) and money laundering. He's also accused of
refusing to communicate to the authorities *"the information or documents
necessary for the realization and exploitation of interceptions authorized
by law."* According to the *New York Times,* he is also in trouble for
operating encryption without a license (I didn't know that was a thing. Is
it just for CEOs who operate in France, or for everyone?). That's a lot of
accusations. Are they trying to intimidate him? It seems that they are
trying to punish the road and not the driver.

He operates a service with end-to-end encryption (sometimes--it's opt-in)
and won't cooperate with the police to hand over data. What is your
analysis of this situation? I'm wondering who else may be in danger of
arrest, and what kind of precedent this sets for encryption. And unless I'm
mistaken, it doesn't look like anyone is rallying around Durov, who is an
imperfect victim.

Should they?

-Kate Krauss


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