Telegram founder arrested
Another serious incident reminding us that it might be time to end pointless tribalism and actively engage in safeguarding our intellectual, physical, and financial freedom.
Before continuing, leave a like! And if you wish, let me know your thoughts in the comments. - Matte
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, was arrested in France following a search warrant while making a stopover with his jet arriving from Azerbaijan.
Specifically, the authorities accuse Durov of failing to actively prevent the dissemination of these contents and related transactions on his platform. He is set to appear before a judge next Saturday, who is likely to confirm his preventive detention pending trial. According to early reports, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Another battle in the Crypto Wars
The arrest, which is likely to be followed by a precautionary measure (preventive detention), is mainly due to the accusation of complicity in several serious crimes, such as terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, dissemination of child pornography, and so on. In short, the complete package well known to those familiar with the peculiar context of the Crypto Wars.
Yes, because Durov's arrest also falls squarely within that global repression campaign that I and others refer to as the Crypto Wars, which has been ongoing for over 30 years.
The script is exactly the same that hit the founders of Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet, which I’ve already discussed in recent months. It’s the same script that allowed U.S. authorities to imprison Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silkroad, for life. It’s also the same script that, after more than 10 years of legal battles, could lead to the extradition of Kim Dotcom, founder of Megaupload, from New Zealand to the United States.
Contrary to what several sources are reporting, the arrest has nothing to do with the Digital Services Act (DSA), as this is a regulation that applies to legal entities and does not entail any criminal liability.
It’s clear that the DSA is another piece of the overall repression framework to consider, but reducing it to a mere issue of censorship and freedom of expression is wrong. Durov’s case, like all the others mentioned, has much deeper implications.
In fact, Pavel Durov has quietly and behind the scenes accomplished what Facebook was prevented from doing at all costs in 2018 with the Libra project. The integration of the TON protocol and the Toncoin token directly on Telegram has made Telegram the first global social network with peer-to-peer transaction capabilities.
As we know, this is extremely problematic for nation-states and central banks, as the ability to communicate and exchange value without state or financial intermediaries closely erodes their power. The idea that a multitude of people might even consider living, trading, and interacting outside any bureaucratic and national boundaries, as well as outside the usurious grip of central bankers, drives them crazy. Sure, there will be people who exploit this free system to carry out illegal transactions, but the same can largely be said for the traditional financial system.
The issue of privacy, freedom of expression, and censorship is therefore central, but only in relation to the actual capacity to act. No one cares if in a group of friends you share Uncle Adolf memes and engage in complex arithmetic to count how many years it would take to bake six million pizzas.
Freedom of expression, as long as it has no practical consequences in the material realm, is of no interest to the authorities. It becomes relevant only when words are followed by action, such as when a platform becomes a place to exchange real-time information useful for political revolts against the incumbent government, or perhaps to financially support one’s political cause.
And Telegram has long been the subject of interest from those who would prefer a defenseless populace (but free to share memes), such as Germany and Brazil. In 2022, the Brazilian government threatened to shut down Telegram in the country, claiming it was used to spread "fake news" by Bolsonaro supporters. Similarly, Germany sought support from other European countries a few years ago to politically target Telegram due to the dissemination of “extremist” content related to “COVID dissidents” and the “far right.”
I believe that if Elon Musk’s X doesn’t yet have a "payments" function with cryptocurrencies — despite numerous previews — it is exactly for this reason. Combining freedom of expression with freedom of action (peer-to-peer economic transactions) is an explosive combination that must be handled with extreme caution.
Light and darkness
Someone at this time might easily imagine that Pavel Durov, like all the others, brought it upon himself. They should have stayed anonymous, in the shadows, and minded their own business.
However, as much as I appreciate the dark, or lunar, approach, we also need the more solar and transparent emanation of technology.
As I wrote in “Solarpunk and Lunarpunk: the dualism of Web3,” only by integrating both paths — the solar and the lunar, the order (Tree of Life) and the chaos (Tree of Death) — can we build a technological future that is balanced and complete.
Each path, with its strengths and weaknesses, responds to different needs of our society and psyche. Ignoring one of these aspects, perhaps completely giving up on building and operating “transparent” systems like social networks or public blockchains, means giving up an essential part of our humanity and potential.
As my friend Gianluca Grossi also wrote in his editorial for Criptovaluta.it®:
If it’s true that Bitcoin has managed to create a space of freedom and resistance, it’s equally true for me that, if these are the ideals we believe in, we must also claim the full freedom to do so in the light of day.
Ross Ulbricht (Silkroad), Alexey Pertsev, Roman Storm, and Roman Semenov (Tornado Cash), William Lonergan Hill, and Keonne Rodriguez (Samourai Wallet), and Pavel Durov (Telegram) have chosen to expose themselves personally to give the world technologies with incredible liberating potential.
Some of them have chosen to focus on the darker and more chaotic emanation of technology — made up of encryption algorithms and peer-to-peer transactions. Others, like Durov, have chosen the more solar approach, consisting of global communications open to all and public blockchains for conducting business and relationships with the world.
In all cases, they have been harshly punished for daring to challenge the foundations of our world. Once again, the exhortation is to look beyond the news and reflect on the serious implications of these phenomena, which are not abating but are instead accelerating. Hiding in the dark corners of cryptography may work for some and for some time, but I repeat that humanity needs both emanations: light and shadow. In total darkness, nothing lives long.
Perhaps the time has come to set aside silly tribal disputes over who has the longest technological tool (Bitcoiner, I’m especially talking to you) and instead position ourselves all on the same side — actively working, each according to their own abilities and tools, to protect our intellectual, physical, and financial freedom.