And it’s a fight for our future.
This week, the arrest of Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, by the French government sent shockwaves through the global community. The charges against him represent a direct and unprecedented threat to the right to privacy worldwide. In this week’s newsletter, I want to look specifically at the final three charges: They epitomize this alarming assault on privacy:
Providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without a certified declaration,
Providing a cryptology tool not solely ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration,
Importing a cryptology tool ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration.
Yes, you read that correctly, three of the charges against Pavel Durov are for “unlicensed” cryptography.
It amounts to the criminalization of privacy.
Cryptography — like a digital lock and key — allows us to have privacy in the digital world. Apparently, in France, you need a license to be allowed enjoy privacy or build privacy tools. This is terrifying and egregious overreach.
As Phil Zimmermann once explained, he first created PGP (the world’s most widely used email encryption tool) in the 90s because it’s precisely the government that we need encryption to protect ourselves against:
“The need for protecting our right to a private conversation has never been stronger. Democracies everywhere are sliding into populist autocracies. Ordinary citizens and grassroots political opposition groups need to protect themselves against these emerging autocracies as best as they can. If an autocracy inherits or builds a pervasive surveillance infrastructure, it becomes nearly impossible for political opposition to organize, as we can see in China. Secure communication is necessary for grassroots political opposition in those societies.”
— Phil Zimmermann
It’s not about whether you do or don’t like your current government; it’s about safeguarding your right to push back if you ever disagree. Private communication is what allows us to dissent, protest, and fight for change without fear of reprisal. When encryption requires government approval, it defeats its purpose of shielding individuals from surveillance and control. This gives the government the power to determine who can have privacy, undermining freedom. Criminalizing privacy tools disempowers individuals and centralizes control, paving the way for tyranny. Without privacy, all other freedoms are at risk.
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With this declaration of war against privacy from the French government, the need for robust end-to-end encryption in our communication is more important than ever. However, despite Pavel being charged for using cryptography in Telegram, and despite Telegram marketing itself as private and encrypted, it’s one of the last apps I’d recommend if you’re looking for private communication.
I have a video diving deep into why you shouldn’t use Telegram for private communication, and I encourage you all to watch, but here are two big points from the video to understand:
- Telegram doesn’t support end-to-end encryption for group chats.
- Telegram, by default, doesn’t include end-to-end encryption for one-on-one DMs.
Be seeing you
MCViewPoint 