On August 24, 2024 Pavel Durov—founder of encrypted free speech platform Telegram— was arrested in France on criminal charges relating to an alleged lack of content moderation on Telegram and refusal to work with police, which allowed the alleged spread of criminal activity. Durov holds French citizenship and was arrested at Le Bourget Airport in Paris while on a refueling stop in his private plane. I find this an intriguing detail, as it suggests he did NOT know that French authorities were deeply unsatisfied with his purported lack of cooperation with their purported criminal investigation of Telegram users.
On the face of it, it’s hard to imagine how Pavel could maintain an encrypted free speech platform while at the same time making it readily accessible to state authorities. In none of the (characteristically superficial) reporting I’ve seen on Pavel’s arrest in the mainstream media have I seen any mention of French police obtaining a wiretap warrant from a French judge to access a Telegram user’s account.
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A recent report in Politico states that arrest warrants for Pavel and his brother Nikolai were issued on March 25. Does this mean that Pavel and his brother were NOT informed they they would be arrested if they did not honor a wiretap warrant? The Politico report touches on this question, but doesn’t clarify it.
The arrest warrants were issued after the messaging platform gave “no answer” to an earlier judicial request to identify a Telegram user, according to the document, which was shared with POLITICO by a person directly involved in the case.
The document also stresses “Telegram’s almost non-existent cooperation” with both French and European authorities in other cases.
Warrants for Pavel and his brother Nikolai, the platform’s co-founder, were issued on March 25 over charges including “complicity in possessing, distributing, offering or making available pornographic images of minors, in an organized group.” French media had previously reported the probe was opened in July.
QUESTION for any French lawyer who happens to read this post: What exactly does the phrase “judicial request”—in French demande judiciaire—mean, and how does this general concept differ from the more precise “wiretap warrant” —mandat d’écoute électronique?
Everything about Pavel’s arrest raises the suspicion that the charges against him were trumped-up, probably in an intrigue initiated by French and U.S. intelligence, both of which are very keen to gain access to Telegram’s encrypted communications.
Of special note is a fact also noted in a recent Politico report.
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Telegram is widely used by the Russian military for battlefield communications thanks to problems with rolling out its own secure comms system. It’s also the primary vehicle for pro-war military bloggers and media — as well as millions of ordinary Russians.
“They practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army,” Russian military blogger channel Povernutie na Z Voine said in a Telegram statement.
It’s also a salient fact that U.S. and French military units were recently asked to leave Niger by the ruling junta that came to power in 2023. French units withdrew last December. The U.S. has stated it will withdrawal its troops this month of September 2024.
The apparent reason for the rift was the junta’s perception that Washington and Paris were primarily interested in countering Russian influence in the region instead of fighting Islamic terrorism—the stated grounds for their military presence in Niger. Moscow, on the other hand, has persuaded the junta that Russian military units are happy to focus on the task of fighting terrorists.
