Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ One interesting aspect of the charges against Pavel Durov is the role that's likely to be played by Article 323-3-2 of France's Criminal Code, which only went into force in February 2024. Elon Musk could well be vulnerable under the same article. ⬇️

https://x.com/jsrailton/status/1828125807035756706

2/ Article 323-3-2 creates liability for "a person whose activity consists of providing an online platform service" who is "knowingly allowing the transfer of products, content or services whose transfer, offer, acquisition or possession is manifestly illicit".

3/ If they are found guilty, this is punishable by five years of imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 ($167,000) euros. If they carry out this offence as part of a 'criminal gang', they can be imprisoned for 10 years and fined 500,000 euros ($557,000).

4/ The charges seem to reference this article directly. Durov is accused of "web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction in [an] organized group" (the latter is perhaps a reference to Telegram's employees, who might be regarded as co-conspirators).

5/ Another charge refers to "criminal association with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable by 5 or more years of imprisonment," which matches the punishments set out in Article 323-3-2.

6/ The "manifestly illicit" content is described in the charges as child pornography, drug distribution, and hacking tools, which Durov is accused of offering, possessing, distributing and making available. He is also accused of breaking laws regulating cryptology tools.

7/ Under Article 323-3-2, he faces liability for "offering, through an online platform provider or in support of transactions that they enable, intermediation or escrow services whose sole or main purpose is to implement, conceal or facilitate the operation" of illicit content.

8/ I suspect that the private Telegram channels where a lot of illegal stuff has reportedly been distributed and transacted would count as a "service whose sole or major purpose" is to conceal the transmission of the illegal content (which is illegal everywhere, not just France).

9/ Article 323-3-2 was likely created to deal with illegal dark web marketplaces like Silk Road, whose admin Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in a US prison 11 years ago. Certain features of Telegram, like the anonymised private channels, could be seen as rather similar.

10/ Durov's supporters are claiming that he's unfairly being held responsible for content posted by others. But the charges seem to hinge on Telegram's culpability for failing to deal with (or outright refusing) law enforcement requests:

11/ "Refusal to communicate, at the request of competent authorities, information or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed by law."

12/ The basis of the case is likely that law enforcement organisations have been reporting illegal content – notification will have made Telegram "knowingly" aware of what it is hosting – but have been getting slow or non-responses from the company.

13/ It's worth noting that this is exactly the same complaint that French sports broadcasters have made about Telegram when reporting illegal streams of football matches.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1827767812401537502

14/ Elon Musk could potentially find himself in the same position as Durov. Illegal content is rampant on Twitter/X. This advert for drugs, posted only 4 hours ago, is one of untold thousands that have been posted openly for months if not years by UK-based drug dealers.

15/ NBC News has found that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is readily available on Twitter/X, which was fined over $600,000 in October 2023 by an Australian regulator for failing to crack down on it. Elon Musk personally unbanned a user who had been banned for posting CSAM.

16/ The key questions for Twitter/X are how effective its systems are at detecting and removing illegal content and banning those who post it, and how responsive it is to complaints. The personal experience of many users is not good on either count.

17/ The European Commission has already found Twitter/X to be in breach of the EU's Digital Services Act. This is likely to lead to billion-euro fines, but the Durov case suggests that Elon Musk also needs to think carefully about travelling to Europe, and especially France. /end

Sources:
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🔹 legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_…
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
theguardian.com/technology/202…
forbes.com/sites/conormur…
reuters.com/breakingviews/…