Pavel Durov got arrested 🚔
Here's what this means for the US 🇺🇸, EU 🇪🇺, Ukraine 🇺🇦, and Russia 🇷🇺, from the perspective of a Ukrainian-US tech entrepreneur who's been covering Telegram's Kremlin connections and security holes for the last 15 months. Thread: 1/X
Here's what this means for the US 🇺🇸, EU 🇪🇺, Ukraine 🇺🇦, and Russia 🇷🇺, from the perspective of a Ukrainian-US tech entrepreneur who's been covering Telegram's Kremlin connections and security holes for the last 15 months. Thread: 1/X
"The detention and search warrant was issued because Durov did not cooperate with French security forces and did not properly moderate Telegram, which makes him an accomplice in crimes such as drug trafficking, terrorism, money laundering, child abuse, etc" - 🇫🇷TF1 2/X
I was following Durov's story for the last ~17 years more or less, since the early days of VK. First as a VK user in Ukraine in 2007, then as a tech entrepreneur in the US and Ukraine 2012-2022, finally as a volunteer investigator since in 2023 3/X
What we're seeing now is a sharply negative reaction from the "rightwing X users", starting with @elonmusk and @TuckerCarlson, who are joined by @KimDotcom, @Cobratate, and others, demanding to free Pavel and stop censoring "The Free Speech" 4/X
However, they all fail to mention that allegations against Pavel are serious, he never complied with the content moderation rules, allowing arms trafficking, illegal drugs, human trafficking, and worse to flourish on the platform, using UAE jurisdiction as a safe heaven 5/X
as 🇫🇷TF1 reports "French authorities are checking Durov's possible connections with the Kremlin"
also this: "Pavel Durov is a French citizen and is not subject to exchange or extradition"
6/X
also this: "Pavel Durov is a French citizen and is not subject to exchange or extradition"
6/X
And on this topic, we have a collection of selected investigative pieces on , a non-profit studying Telegram’s security and its potential ties to the Kremlin. And there's more behind the hood. Follow @Kremlingram and @tokar_ua for more 7/Xkremlingram.org
While there's no smoking gun proving Durov does what Putin says – there are plenty (50+?) of indirect pieces of evidence pointing towards numerous connections, despite Telegram's and Durov's public denial of such. 8/X
For example, in response to our investigations about Kremlin ties in 2023, Telegram claimed they have "no connection to Russia". Today, Russian embassy in France says Durov is a russian citizen.
Source 1:
Source 2:
9/X telegra.ph/Azhnyuk-Claims
tass.ru/politika/21680…
Source 1:
Source 2:
9/X telegra.ph/Azhnyuk-Claims
tass.ru/politika/21680…
We have also shown that Telegram has people in Russia doing work for them (whether they call them employees or not), most of TG's revenues come from Russia, they have Russian bondholders, among which - money of Russia's top oligarchs and Putin's pals 10/X
Media often cite a story of Durov's own telling that he was "exiled from russia" for allegedly "refusing to provide data on Ukrainian users to the Russian government in 2013". We have reasons to believe this might be no more than a cover-up story 11/X
The same goes for the alleged blocking attempt of Telegram in Russia in 2018 which supposedly failed, whereas governments less tech-savvy than Russia were able to block it. 2018 might've been the best marketing campaign for a messenger ever 12/X
So I'd ask reporters to use "allegedly" or similar wording whenever they tell those stories, 13/X
If you are only going to read one piece about Telegram+Kremlin - let it be this piece by @tokar_ua for @Textyorgua_Eng, a highly reputable Ukrainian media doing a lot of investigative work and data journalism 14/Xtexty.org.ua/articles/11234…
And if you'd rather "follow the money" here's another piece, by Ihor Pylypiv, for @ukrpravda_news 15/Xpravda.com.ua/eng/articles/2…
Okay, I will give you two more - a third one, if you'd rather go for a media better known by an average western reader – check this piece by @DarrenLoucaides for @WIRED , from Feb 2023 (Telegram has issued an official response to this) 16/Xwired.com/story/the-krem…
And the last one for today, written by me in March 2023, that has also deserved a response from Telegram, a piece of which featured slightly above on that Spiderman meme 17/Xkyivindependent.com/yaroslav-azhny…
Again, for more reporting on Telegram's connections to the Kremlin– check out and follow @Kremlingram - more good stuff there 18/Xkremlingram.org
Now back to the latest news.
Here's one of russia's top pro-war telegram channels followed by some 800k people unironically posts this: "De-facto, they detained the head of communications for the Russian Army (VS RF)"
19/X t.me/voenacher/70638
Here's one of russia's top pro-war telegram channels followed by some 800k people unironically posts this: "De-facto, they detained the head of communications for the Russian Army (VS RF)"
19/X t.me/voenacher/70638
This should not come as a surprise. Telegram, indeed, is the main comms channel for the Russian army - not just a news source, but a key messenger, used to coordinate action on different levels, store videos and large files, etc. 20/X
While a lot of Ukrainian civilian population relies on Telegram for the news, military doesn't use it, preferring WhatsApp and Signal instead. It is formally forbidden to use TG in comms in Ukrainian military. 21/X
Meanwhile, in Russia, they blocked Signal, widely considered as one of the most secure messaging apps with two-way encryption. As well as Facebook and Instagram (not Whatsapp yet, which is a top messenger in russia), but are for some reason not concerned about Telegram 22/X
Oh, and by the way, Durov was returning from Azerbaijan as he got detained in France. Do you think he comes there often? Not really. It has just so coincided, Pavel was at 🇦🇿 a few days ago at the same moment when Putin made a visit there. 23/X
There was a public rumor that Pavel wanted to meet Putin to prevent Telegram from being blocked in russia, but Putin didn't want to see him. However, I would not take it at a face value and would not be so sure the meeting didn't take place or what the real topic were 24/X
In other news, Yekaterina Mizulina, a nutritious russian public figure, has a fresh take: "Durov's arrest is targeting TON cryptocurrency, which is used as a wallet by many large russian businesspeople". Thanks for letting us know how they hide the bloody money, Yekaterina! 25/X
What is obvious now, is that Russia 🇷🇺(both the Kremlin and most of the so-called opposition groups) will be yelling about double standards and free speech violation. This is a regime with zero free press, where journalists and politicians are being killed. Just ignore this 26/X
The Republican part of the media sphere in US 🇺🇸 may go in the same direction. If this is you, please think about how Telegram's community aligns with your values, the values of Christianity and human dignity. 27/X
How do we handle an app with 1 billion users which is completely outside of the US 🇺🇸 legal framework yet has millions of users in the US and can influence events, like Jan 6th, when Telegram was the key app? 28/X
For some reason, I feel more confident about the EU 🇪🇺. This will be more of a "wait and see" approach, and let the French 🇫🇷 legal system do its work. 29/X
Finally, in Ukraine 🇺🇦 I hope this will be yet another signal for people to decrease their reliance on a platform, which is likely compromised and used by our mortal enemy. My current replacement choice is Signal/Whatsapp for messages and X for the news. 30/X
That's it for now.
Let me know what you think and how the whole situation is perceived from your point of view.
I will keep adding updates and selected replies to this thread over the next few days as the story unveils.
31/X
Let me know what you think and how the whole situation is perceived from your point of view.
I will keep adding updates and selected replies to this thread over the next few days as the story unveils.
31/X
If you found this thread interesting and insightful - please, like, retweet, and spread the word. 32/X
Alright, this thread got quite popular, with 1.8M views in 10 hours and counting, thanks for your interest! More updates coming today 33/X
Seems like post #9 of this mega-thread was hidden by Twitter due to a potentially broken/restricted link to a TASS source. Here it is as a screenshot. 39/X
Wait, I thought Pavel told us that Telegram is the most encrypted app and there's no way someone can read your messages.
(of course, no. TG doesn't have end-to-end encryption enabled by default) 40/X
(of course, no. TG doesn't have end-to-end encryption enabled by default) 40/X
https://x.com/Tendar/status/1827686610970055008
It's a good thing Telegram doesn't store any of your messages on its servers...
(it actually does store all the messages on its servers. Likely even after you delete those messages. There are numerous cases reported of 6-month-old deleted messages recovered by Russian FSB) 41/X
(it actually does store all the messages on its servers. Likely even after you delete those messages. There are numerous cases reported of 6-month-old deleted messages recovered by Russian FSB) 41/X
An interesting coincidence of viewpoints for these seemingly unrelated groups... 🤔 43/X
https://x.com/golub/status/1827600874807451684
On a more serious note, russian so-called military correspondents are livid over Durov's detention
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1827636752342729049
Russia's imperial philosopher Dugin says that consolidation around Kamala, Ukrainian attack in Kursk, and Durov's detention are all parts of the same puzzle. In order to respond, Russia has to start executing (as in killing) its elites 🥴😵💫🤷♂️ 46/X
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1827629553856004308
As noted by a Russian anti-putin blogger @michaelnacke – both Twitter and Telegram have tons of censorship, but it is selective. You can post beheaded Ukrainians, but can't use [Navalny's] Smart Voting bot, and soldier's wives' TG chat gets marked as fake
https://x.com/michaelnacke/status/1827649440619913263
Telegram's cryptocurrency $TON, which was previously mentioned by Mizulina as a key wallet for russian elites, is down 16% on the news of Durov's detention 48/X
Many Twitter users suggest Durov might've decided he needed France's protection from Russia. But why not state that directly? It could be anything at this point, and I hope we will learn more in the coming days. 49/X
https://x.com/Brif83/status/1827736790075162939
Allegations against Durov revealed and they are incredibly severe 🤯. New thread today:
https://x.com/YaroslavAzhnyuk/status/1828139449898934558
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