Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov arrested at French airport following investigation into platform

[Plutoisaplanet]

you sadly confuse speaking out against conservative fascism (which is what the quote is attributed to) and the American free speech which gives the right to question and petition the government. Free speech does not give the right to post fake news and be a breeding ground for illegal activity. If it was, I could go on twitter stating you are a pedophile and there is a $250k reward for taking you out and then hide behind "hey, free speech" if anyone was dumb enough to believe and act on such things.

Libel, inciting violence, and other crimes are not protected by free speech and is different from fake news. But lying outside of that is part of free speech, even if things like fake news is pretty shitty as you describe.

Anyways, illegal activity is banned on Telegram. However what French government authorities are charging this guy with with is negligence because of not having heavy moderation. This is from Wikipedia and explains what type of content Telegram does try to block: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)#Criminal_complicity_and_negligence

Due to Telegram’s mixed nature as both a private communication method and a social media-like platform with mass groups and channels, along with its minimal restrictions on content with only calls to violence, illegal forms of pornography and scamming forbidden, the platform has been used by organizations and large groups for recruitment and spreading of their agenda. Organized use of the app has been linked to pro-democracy protests in Belarus, Russia, Hong Kong and Iran, as well as to the dissemination of state propaganda and violent rhetoric in oppressive regimes, the promotion of extremist views, and the digitalization of services provided by government entities and private businesses.

The app has been criticized by numerous research institutions and internet monitoring bodies due to violent organizations like ISIS, Proud Boys and the Myanmar junta using the app to communicate, both privately between members and publicly through channel posts. While Telegram made substantial efforts to ban illegal content such as child abuse and pro-terrorist channels, including a partnership with Europol to eliminate IS presence on the platform, communities of far-left and far-right, antivaxx, Antifa and extremist users are still found on the app. Such content is usually linked to Telegram allowing misinformation on the platform as, according to the founder, "conspiracy theories only strengthen each time their content is removed by moderators".

Misinformation is not blocked there nor on X. What's different about X is it is more of a forum, there are community notes designed to fight obvious misinformation, and X has a public feed which it prevents misinformation from being spread. Europe doesn't even like X's moderation, and is warned them against even hosting a Donald Trump interview on the platform... https://x.com/ThierryBreton/status/1823033048109367549

 

[dirtyferret]

EDIT: Oh actually - yeah, I did misinterpret your first sentence.

 

[trparky]

When it comes to free speech, I am a free speech absolutist. Any and all speech must be allowed.

Because the moment you limit even one kind of speech, you start going down a slippery slope the likes of which I am very afraid of. Why? Because who knows if what’s allowed today won’t be allowed tomorrow?

 

[AlexIL]

Here goes down democracy along with human rights. Privacy is essential part of freedom and liberty. Amusing that it happened in France, first nation that proclaimed and fought for human rights.

 

[trparky]

Here goes down democracy along with human rights. Privacy is essential part of freedom and liberty.

Exactly. We're seeing the beginning of the end of freedom as we know it.

 

[Endymio]

Guy who runs a platform used for criminal activities get arrested

The Internet is used for criminal activities. Should we start arresting ISPs and makers of routers and Wifi cards?

Even closer to home is this atrocity:

Aug 26, 2024": "Meta CEO Zuckerberg admits Biden-Harris admin pressured company to censor Americans"

dimwitted people get upset because their political cult tells them to get upset

Pot, meet kettle. It doesn't concern you whatsoever that this arrest comes only after Durov publicly stated that he'd refused multiple demands to place backdoors in Telegram, allowing US and EU authorities to secretly read all encrypted messages?

 

[VectorVortec]

Exactly. Never ceases to amaze me the amount of sanctimonious and fake outrage on this website!
Criminal activity? Child p0rn? Misogyny, etc?? Yeah, they'll defend the peddler of such criminal activity!

Encryption is used by everyone on the Internet. You are just as guilty as everyone else. They haven't bothered you yet, because you are not successful, but your day will come. At the present, no one (not even criminals) is arrested except for companies that are targeted for hostile takeover. The same thing happened to WhatsApp, just before Facebook bought them. Politicians (journalists are also bought on a regular basis) are for sale which is why they run for office. Someone is paying French politicians to put pressure on Telegram.