**So, Alec, what do *you* believe is happening with Pavel Durov and Telegram Messenger and the French Government?**
People are asking me this, and everyone else has taken their shot by now (with varying amounts of value) so here’s mine:
Personally I view Pavel Durov as existing only one or two rungs down from Elon Musk on the ladder of self-serving product misrepresentation and personal self-mythologising, and it seems to have finally caught-up with him, although I believe it’s an open question regards whether Durov’s flight to France — and all of this brouhaha — is somehow to his greater benefit than, for instance, hanging around in less-rule-of-law-oriented countries such as Azerbaijan or the UAE.
France might conceivably be safer than anywhere else for Durov, at the moment. Probably still sucks to be him, but it’s still preferable to being a Skripal or Navalny.
Telegram has possibly the weakest overall security of all the mainstream messenger apps; it is [repeatedly misrepresented in the media as an “encrypted messenger”](https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram-is-not-really-an-encrypted-messaging-app/ ) and it profits such perception by appealing to self-identified subversive interests; they also appear to openly embrace (or at very least: lightly police) use by such interests evidenced by (for instance) channels dedicated to various forms of propaganda in support of the Russian war on Ukraine, or the recent UK fascist, right-wing and drunken-idiot-looter rioting.
As such: being such a **weak platform**, such a **bad value offer**, but with a **brand reputation for (supposed) encryption** and **no serious, demonstrable *pretence* of delivering an anti-abuse, anti-extremist, pro-trust-and-safety agenda**, makes **Telegram ripe for plucking and being made an example-of by state authorities** who want to **undermine public demand for the entire field of secure messaging.**
If I were a European state security operation — or a member of the European Commission — I would be talking right now to the French in order to make sure that as much muck as possible gets thrown at Durov, in the hope that a few months from now they can do the same to Will Cathcart or Mark Zuckerberg.
https://alecmuffett.com/article/110298
#chatcontrol #endToEndEncryption #france #pavelDurov #telegram
alecm /
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2024-08-26 11:22:37
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"content": "**So, Alec, what do *you* believe is happening with Pavel Durov and Telegram Messenger and the French Government?**\n\nPeople are asking me this, and everyone else has taken their shot by now (with varying amounts of value) so here’s mine:\n\nPersonally I view Pavel Durov as existing only one or two rungs down from Elon Musk on the ladder of self-serving product misrepresentation and personal self-mythologising, and it seems to have finally caught-up with him, although I believe it’s an open question regards whether Durov’s flight to France — and all of this brouhaha — is somehow to his greater benefit than, for instance, hanging around in less-rule-of-law-oriented countries such as Azerbaijan or the UAE.\n\nFrance might conceivably be safer than anywhere else for Durov, at the moment. Probably still sucks to be him, but it’s still preferable to being a Skripal or Navalny.\n\nTelegram has possibly the weakest overall security of all the mainstream messenger apps; it is [repeatedly misrepresented in the media as an “encrypted messenger”](https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram-is-not-really-an-encrypted-messaging-app/ ) and it profits such perception by appealing to self-identified subversive interests; they also appear to openly embrace (or at very least: lightly police) use by such interests evidenced by (for instance) channels dedicated to various forms of propaganda in support of the Russian war on Ukraine, or the recent UK fascist, right-wing and drunken-idiot-looter rioting.\n\nAs such: being such a **weak platform**, such a **bad value offer**, but with a **brand reputation for (supposed) encryption** and **no serious, demonstrable *pretence* of delivering an anti-abuse, anti-extremist, pro-trust-and-safety agenda**, makes **Telegram ripe for plucking and being made an example-of by state authorities** who want to **undermine public demand for the entire field of secure messaging.**\n\nIf I were a European state security operation — or a member of the European Commission — I would be talking right now to the French in order to make sure that as much muck as possible gets thrown at Durov, in the hope that a few months from now they can do the same to Will Cathcart or Mark Zuckerberg.\n\nhttps://alecmuffett.com/article/110298\n\n#chatcontrol #endToEndEncryption #france #pavelDurov #telegram",
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