The world underestimated the significance of Telegram founder’s arrest

Author: Shaun Maguire Compiler: Block unicorn

48 hours ago, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested when his private plane landed near Paris.

Durov was born in Russia and his Telegram has nearly 1 billion active users. The Russian government has demanded that Durov be deported to Russia. However, Telegram is sometimes used for bad purposes, such as terrorist communications and the dissemination of child pornography (two of the worst things you can imagine).

Based on these facts, what conclusion can you draw other than that Durov is a villain?

But this is wrong. Most people have this story backwards. Durov is actually a hero.

Durov’s first company, VK, was the largest social network in Russia. Durov founded it when he was about 21, just a kid. The company was seized by the Russian government because Durov refused to cooperate with the Russian government.

The experience was a major shift for Durov, who founded Telegram after leaving VK. He designed Telegram in every way possible to ensure that it would avoid cooperation with authoritarian governments. He wanted to create a platform that would help citizens communicate with each other across borders and authoritarian regimes.

Somehow, people around the world now tend to assume the worst about Durov. “This app has been used for bad things, and he’s Russian, so he must be a bad guy!” But they forget that Telegram played a major role in many of the pro-democracy protests of the past decade. Many are calling the 2020 Belarusian protests the “Telegram Revolution.” Here are some headlines and excerpts from the Associated Press from 2020.

Now let’s dig a little deeper. Pavel Durov became a French citizen in 2021. How did he get this passport? It’s a rare achievement in France, and it was provided by Macron himself. We don’t know why Macron gave him this passport, but perhaps it’s because of Telegram’s role in helping to organize protests in Russian proxy states?

Somehow the narrative in the West over the past 48 hours (outside of X) has been one that assumes Durov is guilty rather than innocent. The French government just brought 12 charges against him, most of which involve horrific crimes such as "involving the possession of pornographic images of minors." You might be asking yourself, "I know Telegram was used to send messages like this, so how can he be innocent?"

You are missing the point that Durov has been an enemy of authoritarian governments all his adult life. Many Western governments are rapidly becoming authoritarian, so Durov is now their enemy as well.

You also ignore that Russia’s extradition request, by making it, Russia has three benefits:

1. They shame their Western enemies and expose the decay of the liberal values ​​they are based on.

2. They discredit Durov – as one of their enemies.

3. If he is extradited to Russia, then they will have leverage over him and perhaps finally get the backdoor they have been wanting.

I don’t know the French system well enough to know how much influence President Macron has, but from the outside he has always struck me as a man with justice at heart. I hope he finds a way to intervene.

These charges against Durov could be leveled against any social media platform. I cannot stress to you how important the next few days are. Western liberal values ​​are under attack as never before, in a situation that few truly understand.

“If free speech is taken away, we are silenced and led like lambs to the slaughter.” - George Washington