by Jose Nino, Big League Politics:
On September 23, 2024, Telegram, Chief Executive Officer, Pavel Durov announced that the messaging application will provide users’ IP addresses and phone numbers to relevant political authorities as a response to legal requests from certain Western governments.
Durov announced that Telegram changed its terms of services to allegedly prevent criminals from abusing the platform.
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This move comes less than a month after French authorities arrested Durov. In France, Durov faces charges of allegedly being complicit in the dissemination of materials featuring acts of child abuse.
Telegram’s policy changes represent a significant departure from its usual approach to government requests for data and its overall relaxed approach to content moderation.
Telegram is based in the United Arab Emirates. It has built a reputation for being non-responsive to requests by governments worldwide to take down content, and has even ignored requests for providing information about individuals suspected of crimes.
The app is currently using artificial intelligence and several moderators to hide salacious content from its search results in order to prevent the abuse of its platform.
Last month French prosecutors charged Durov in relation to crimes allegedly taking place on Telegram. The French authorities have tried to brand the billionaire CEO of Russian origin as that leader of a company that refused to provide French authorities with the information help them Implement legal wiretaps on individual suspected of committing crimes
Durov has firmly denied these charges. He has been ordered to stay in France as he goes through his legal ordeal.
Under Durov’s stewardship, Telegram has been targeted by governments across the globe, ranging from the European Union to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation.
Protesters have routinely used telegrams to organize demonstrations against their government. In addition, Telegram has served as an outlet for alternative media, pundits, conspiracy theorists, and other groups that have been traditionally dispossessed by the legacy media and other Western political institutions.
The Russian government attempted to block Telegram back in 2018. However, it gave up in 2020 after it failed to shut down the app. When the ban was discarded, the Russian government body in charge of regulating it revealed that Telegram would help fight extremism and terrorism.
Durov’s arrest has also prompted several policy changes at Telegram for example it took down additional media uploads which it claims was directed at halting bots and scam artists.
There’s more to the Telegram case that meets the eye. Telegram has allowed for many groups on the right, white identitarians, pro-Palestinian individuals and organizations, and even those who question the influence of organized Jewry to disseminate ideas that challenge the legacy media’s narrative on issues such as mass migration, never-ending wars, and political correctness.
Free speech protections remain relatively strong in the US, so members of the American national security establishment likely outsourced the policing function of shutting down Telegram to France. As a member of NATO and the Collective West, France will likely do DC’s bidding without complaints, which likely explains why Durov was arrested in France of all places..
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