• General_Effort@lemmy.worldEnglish
    661·
    4 months ago

    [French media] said the investigation was focused on a lack of moderators on Telegram, and that police considered that this situation allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app.

    Europe defending its citizens against the tech giants, I’m sure.

    • RedditWanderer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      43·
      4 months ago

      There’s a lot of really really dark shit on telegram that’s for sure, and it’s not like signal where they are just a provider. They do have control the content

  • abobla@lemm.eeEnglish
    621·
    4 months ago

    Why arrest him? Why not threaten to block the app in France or something like that?

    And why only arrest him? Should the discord creators also be arrested for some shady channels? Should Elon Musk be arrested because twitter is the equivalent of fhe fifth circle of hell?

    • pop@lemmy.mlEnglish
      361·
      4 months ago

      So they can make a very convincing case for a backdoor, in exchange for his release. And maybe some compensation for continued cooperation. Both come out winning and they get to claim nothing happened.

      Government cyber security dealings as usual. or not. who knows?

      • azertyfun@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        7·
        4 months ago

        That conspiracy theory is so dumb.

        The government almost certainly doesn’t need a backdoor as telegram is almost completely unencrypted (only one-to-one channels can be but aren’t by default). The real (but more boring) conspiracy theory is that governments generally don’t mind Telegram because its willfully terrible security model allows them to keep an eye on terrorists and activists’ communications (I have a hard time believing that the NSA or even DGSE don’t have their own backdoors already).

        However the EU does have laws mandating the moderation of said unencrypted messages, especially when it comes to CSAM, which Telegram is notoriously poorly moderated. It’s certainly reason enough to arrest and question this guy, at least until formal charges are brought or he walks free. Maybe there are additional political considerations, but there doesn’t have to be.

        Also how would arresting this guy help with backdooring. He doesn’t have access to the source code. Whoever he calls to get that done is out of reach of the French police. He has no reason not to disable that backdoor as soon as he gets out of the EU. If he can be bought off he already has been (Crypto AG style except way lamer because no-one clever&important trusts Telegram), you don’t need to arrest someone to pay them. I’m no DSGSE bigwig but pressuring lower level engineers to backdoor their code seems like a 1000% more effective approach.

    • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      27·
      4 months ago

      Clearest difference I can see is:

      • people who act more in the interest of society and less in the interest of those in power get arrested
      • people who help those in power tighten the leash on society (fuckerberg, muskrat, etc) get courted and don’t ever face consequences

      In other words: A high profile person in tech being threatened with arrest / being arrested by western countries is a pretty good sign that they were not cooperating with our totalitarian overlords & providing us with ways to preserve our privacy.

    • index@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      192·
      4 months ago

      And why only arrest him? Should the discord creators also be arrested for some shady channels? Should Elon Musk be arrested because twitter is the equivalent of fhe fifth circle of hell?

      Stop asking question and go back to work

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
        22·
        4 months ago

        Or those places actually do have measures in place to moderate the content. Seems simple enough

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    371·
    4 months ago

    I don’t use Telegram because I don’t think it’s secure, but this is still bullshit.

  • Skasi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    4 months ago

    I don’t really know much about this topic even after reading the article. It does bother me however that there’s so many channels/server on Telegram full of spammers that seem to offer drugs and prostitution. It’s almost like those were the only things that exist in this world. Which is such a huge waste of a chat program.

    Also who the hell listens to any of the nonsense influencers/politicians write in their heavily biased channels, seriously, I can’t find a sane reason to join those, yet strangely that seems to be the only reason the masses use this tool. It’s all just confusing.