The West is trying to silence criticism of its foreign policy in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. The attempted crackdown on encrypted messaging platform Telegram is driven by the West’s desire to monitor online activity, control the flow of information and censor criticism of its foreign policy.
The West is trying to silence criticism of its foreign policy in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. The attempted crackdown on encrypted messaging platform Telegram is driven by the West’s desire to monitor online activity, control the flow of information and censor criticism of its foreign policy.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested by French authorities after his private jet landed at an airport outside Paris.
Very Possible all the accusations are implausible, false. They accuse him of terrorism. And for fraud. So this clearly smacks of political persecution.” “They will charge him with terrorism because he refused to censor certain groups, people who support Hamas are allowed to communicate freely on Telegram. Telegram is one of the few channels that actually allows information critical of foreign policy doctrines to be circulated. I think that’s really at the root of Telegram’s crackdown.
The political persecution – From a friend of Macron … an enemy!
Durov is reportedly facing a number of charges related to a lack of content moderation on Telegram, which authorities claim implicates him in sharing content related to terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering.
The platform has become known for hosting Western political dissidents, who are able to post content that is discouraged or banned on other online platforms.
There was a time when [Durov] was considered friendly to [French President Emmanuel Macron. But that period has passed, because this kind of arrest would not have happened without Macron’s knowledge and approval. It is likely to become a bargaining chip. But the question is who will negotiate with him? The tech entrepreneur left Russia in 2014.
The truth is that he left Russia and accepted French citizenship and chose to reside in the United Arab Emirates. Therefore, he is not high on the priority list of the Russian intelligence services to bring him back by any means. He is not useful to Russia in this regard. The West – the French in particular – were wrong to grab him because they think it will somehow create leverage or create an issue with Russia.
The back door
Durov previously claimed during an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson that the FBI had tried to encourage one of Telegram’s engineers to create a “backdoor” in the app for use by Western intelligence agencies.
Criticism of the US-backed war in Ukraine and Israel’s military operation in Gaza on Telegram particularly surprised Western authorities.
Social media app TikTok came under similar attack from US senators earlier this year when legislation was passed to ban the app after this fall’s presidential election.
The pro-Israel lobby has weighed in on the bill’s passage, with Anti-Defamation League executive Jonathan Greenblatt … bemoaning the popularity of pro-Palestinian content on the platform.
Probably the biggest issue in relation to the West is the coverage [Telegram] provides of what is happening in Ukraine and the coverage it allows of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in the Middle East and in Gaza and the West Bank.
The last issue in particular has upset the Israelis quite a bit. And they were looking for a way to shut him down. The French were reportedly trying to shut down Telegram. So we’ll see.
US partners in Russian media outlets such as Sputnik and RT could continue to face intimidation following FBI raids on the homes of Scott Ritter and Dimitri Simes this month.
Dimitri Simes is an American who naturalized in the US in the 1970s because he was a dissident against the Soviet Union, against the Communist Party. And now the very country he fled to for freedom and protection has turned against him and unleashed our version of the secret police against him. If it can happen to someone like Dimitri, it can happen to anyone.
