Telegram’s founder was arrested in August in France. Whereas the rationale given was his connection to legal exercise on the platform, Telegram’s actions in Web3 could possibly be the actual trigger. Like in Fb’s Libra/Diem case, authorities will be delicate to personal cash initiatives by giant social networks.
Pavel Durov, the founding father of Telegram, was arrested in France again in August. Youngster pornography distribution and drug trafficking accusations painted an alarming public picture. The primary expenses have been reportedly associated to Durov’s refusal to cooperate with French authorities, nevertheless, Durov denied disregarding authorities’ requests.
🇫🇲 Youngster abuse is a disturbing subject that causes grave concern and justifies authorities’ enforcement actions. At the moment, the EU is engaged on a brand new controversial proposal for generalized picture scanning, which mandates client-side scanning on encrypted messaging platforms to detect unlawful supplies however on the identical time places shoppers’ privateness in danger. Looking for baby pornography is the principle justification right here as effectively.
All main messenger apps have, sooner or later, confronted expenses associated to content material moderation, however this time, the federal government appears to be overreaching. Telegram was comparatively cooperative with the regulators in Germany, Brazil, and Russia in comparable instances (though defending customers’ basic privateness and freedom of speech by refusing to share the cryptographic keys). The messenger reportedly happy nearly 7,000 authorized requests in India simply this 12 months. These contradictions have led to the looks of a number of theories about the actual causes behind Durov’s arrest.
Whereas some imagine that Durov, the principle defender of on-line freedom of speech, is being persecuted by evil authorities looking for personal info and others are shouting about medicine, terrorism, and prostitution, the reality may be someplace in between, within the delicate and important foreign money sector.
Basically, states worldwide are extraordinarily nervous about cryptocurrencies, which could each change fiat cash, minimize off their seigniorage revenues, and deprive governments of management over buying and selling and monetary relations.
When Durov first created The Open Community (at the moment Telegram Open Community) and its native coin, Gram, designed for use for on a regular basis funds throughout the messenger, the authorities firmly instructed him to cease. After Gram’s profitable ICO, the U.S. SEC banned the coin in 2019, forcing Durov to return greater than $1.2 billion to buyers and to pay an $18.5 million civil penalty. The challenge was formally deserted by Telegram and handed to the “group.”
In 2023 @Pockets bot was launched throughout the messenger, indicating that Telegram was again on the crypto scene. Though Durov claimed that TON and Telegram will not be the identical because the choices from 2021, the businesses are working intently on creating Telegram Web3 options. This 12 months, Telegram entered right into a partnership with Tether, the most important stablecoin, and regulators’ headache, permitting customers to ship USDT on TON throughout the app. Over the previous few months, trending mini-apps have attracted tens of millions of customers to the platform, making Telegram x TON one of many fastest-growing blockchain ecosystems and selling its native fee system.
Authority nervousness may be the actual purpose behind their feigned discontent. Some urged that the arrest and the investigation have been orchestrated by U.S. intelligence, which pursues these associated to mixers and crypto-to-cash companies worldwide. Durov talked about earlier that the FBI was even attempting to recruit a Telegram worker.
Though unconfirmed, the allegation sounds completely doable, as this isn’t the primary time U.S. authorities have tried to stop giant social networks from getting into the crypto area. It’s a comparable story to the Libra/Diem stablecoin fee system developed by Fb. The crypto challenge by social media large was shut down in 2022 attributable to U.S. politicians and regulators’ stress and issues.
🥷Russian pro-regime newspapers and specialists urged that Durov’s arrest may be used to get Telegram’s encryption keys and entry secret army info, thus turning the messenger, now the principle communication channel on the entrance, into “a NATO software.” From their standpoint, the entire operation targets the keys and personal information saved in Telegram.
Pavel Durov was shortly launched on bail and barred from leaving France for six months. Since then, the messenger has seen a number of useful modifications, together with eradicating the Individuals Close by function and updating Telegram Search to deal with questionable content material points.
On the identical time, the corporate unified its privateness coverage throughout totally different international locations. Durov shared that in Europe, there was an uptick within the variety of legitimate authorized requests in Q3. Though he defined it by the truth that the authorities merely began to make use of the right procedures, this doesn’t appear to be a easy coincidence when put into the context of Durov’s arrest. Allegedly, the messenger founder greenlighted such requests.
Though no direct bulletins of any modifications to the Telegram crypto initiative have been made, the modifications affected @Pockets as effectively. The app now additionally helps legislation enforcement proof assortment and just lately utilized for UK registration as a CryptoAsset supplier “following an inner resolution and company restructure plan.” For the time of the method, it restricted a number of options for the present UK clients. @Pockets can also be rumored to be banned in France following the identical inner resolution and plan.
To date, there is no such thing as a affirmation that the authorities managed to decelerate Durov’s crypto campaign, however the @Pockets-related compliance points may point out that the authorities’ stress has taken its toll.
