Pavel Durovfounder and CEO of the company Telegramwas arrested on August 25 in Paris, France, charged with non-cooperation in the fight against criminal activity allegedly carried out through a courier service. The manner in which his arrest was carried out just after his private plane landed at Paris-Le Bourget airport suggested that the French authorities had been informed of the trip.

As could be expected, the arrest of Pavel Durov, who by the way has French nationality along with Russian and Emirati nationality, has caused quite a stir in the Internet world, because in addition to being the founder and CEO of the main rival Telegram, he is a figure who has always been built in benefit of privacy. He was released on charges four days after his arrest and has since been banned from leaving France.

As for the situation on Telegram since Pavel Durov’s arrest, it seems that the French authorities have at least partially achieved their goal, as the messaging service’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section has been modified. Over at ArsTechnica, they’ve put together a section of Telegram FAQs collected by the Internet Archive that says the following:

Q: There is illegal content on Telegram. How can I remove it?

All Telegram chats and groups are private between their participants. We do not handle any requests related to them.

All Telegram chats and groups are private between their participants. We do not process any claims related to them.

You can also use the “Report” buttons directly in our apps, see this post on our official @ISISwatch channel for more details.

The part that says “no requests associated with them” has been replaced with “All Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons that allow you to report illegal content to our moderators with just a few taps.”which is followed by more specific instructions on how to report illegal content in messages.

In other words, Telegram apps have included a “Report” option in group chats. Through it you can report copyright infringement, spamviolence, pornography, child abuse, personal drugs or disclosure of personal information. Another reporting option is to send a link to the content via the email used to remove the content: exploit@telegram.org.

Source: TechCrunch

Pavel Durov defends himself regarding his arrest by saying: “Last month, the police interrogated me for 4 days after my arrival in Paris. “I was told that I could be personally responsible for the illegal use of Telegram by other people because the French authorities had not received a response from Telegram.” He continued his statements by emphasizing that “Using pre-smartphone laws to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on a platform he manages is the wrong approach.. Construction technology is difficult enough. “No innovator will create new tools if they know they may be personally liable for the potential misuse of those tools.”

Durov, perhaps inadvertently, put a statement on the table that many pondered after he was arrested: the best way to end stabbings is to ban knives. Finally, the founder of Telegram recalled that the service “has an official representative in the EU who receives and responds to EU requests” and, according to his version, he personally helped the French authorities “establish a hotline with Telegram to face the threat of terrorism. in France.”

The founder of Telegram categorically denied that the service he runs is a paradise of anarchy in which everything is allowed: “Every day we remove millions of harmful posts and channels. We publish transparency reports daily. We have hotlines with NGOs to process urgent requests for moderation faster.”

As we have already said, Pavel Durov is free of charge. One of these charges could lead to a sentence of up to ten years in prison and a fine of €500,000. for alleged complicity because the platform online did not control illegal transactions carried out by organized groups. Other charges say the service refused to release information or documents necessary to conduct wiretaps authorized by law when requested by authorities, and that it provided cryptographic services without making appropriate statements to French authorities. That means Durov will have to face at least one trial if the charges aren’t dropped.