Durov has change into a hero within the eyes of those that champion an web freed from mediation, together with these in cryptocurrency, even when that freedom results in individuals utilizing that community for every kind of morally problematic and even unlawful issues. However Telegram, which is the channel of selection for almost everybody in Web3, just isn’t precisely the encrypted nirvana we would need, ideally. As tech journalist Casey Newton explains:
“Telegram is usually described as an ‘encrypted’ messenger. However as Ben Thompson explains right this moment, Telegram just isn’t end-to-end encrypted, as rivals WhatsApp and Sign are. (Its ‘secret chat’ characteristic is end-to-end encrypted, however it isn’t enabled on chats by default. The overwhelming majority of chats on Telegram usually are not secret chats.) Which means Telegram can take a look at the contents of personal messages, making it weak to legislation enforcement requests for that knowledge.”
Durov has typically offered Telegram as a “safe messenger,” however exterior of its secret chat perform, the service is extra open to authorities intrusion than Sign, WhatsApp and iMessage. Telegram just isn’t Bitcoin, the place transactions are unstoppable. It’s not a blockchain, which accords privateness another way from one thing like Telegram, which, structurally, is each a free speech haven and a honeypot for intermediaries, whether or not felony or governmental.
The great thing about blockchains is we don’t must debate the motivations and machinations of males like Elon Musk, Pavel Durov, and Mark Zuckerberg. The liberty of expression is baked into the code. The free-speech ideas at play in Durov’s case ought to clearly have the crypto group’s assist. However ideally we might have public on-line commons which can be genuinely free from authorities intrusion and the whims of single males, nevertheless well-meaning.
