Two of the six charges that the French gendarmerie brought against Telegram founder Pavel Durov were less high-profile than the others, but they caused a stir in the tech sector, writes Politico in the article “France uses secret cyber law to bring charges against Telegram CEO.”
These two charges relate to the provision of cryptology services intended to provide confidentiality functions without a mandatory declaration, and the provision and import of cryptology tools that do not provide authentication or integrity functions without a mandatory declaration. At the heart of these allegations is a 2004 law requiring any company offering cryptography services to notify the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI and store a “description of the technical characteristics of the cryptography tool” as well as the software’s source code.
Unlike the other charges, which mainly involved distribution of illegal content, these two charges were unexpected for other apps that provide encrypted messaging features, such as Apple’s iMessage, Signal, or WhatsApp (owned by Meta*(which is recognised as an extremist organisation in Russia and is banned), writes Politico. The publication notes that with these “unclear laws” some Western governments are trying to establish control over private correspondence on the Internet.
Lawyers and industry representatives interviewed by Politico could not recall a single case in 20 years in which the law was used to bring charges against tech platforms.
“This is economic suicide that will quickly and permanently change the perception of founders and investors.” — Proton CEO wrote on X Andy Yen.
Politico notes that some speakers who often speak out in favor of crypto tools have refrained from commenting on the allegations against Durov, contributing to the spread of nervousness in the industry.
Telegram is not actually an end-to-end encrypted service, “despite its misleading marketing,” he said. Matthew HodgsonCEO of Element and co-founder of Matrix, two technology companies specializing in cryptography. In his opinion, this position of the messenger complicates their situation, since they actually have access to data that they could transfer in order to combat abuse if they so wished.
Durov was arrested in Paris about two weeks ago. After four days of questioning, he was released on bail, with the obligation not to leave French territory and to report to the gendarmerie twice a week.
The entrepreneur expressed bewilderment at the arrest and noted that the messenger maintains contact with governments and non-profit organizations to remove illegal content, maintaining a balance between security and privacy.
“Claims by some media outlets that Telegram is some kind of anarchist paradise are completely false.” – he emphasized.
Durov also promised to improve the messenger’s work with malicious posts and channels in the near future, RBC clarifies.
*Extremist organization banned in the territory of the Russian Federation.
