things that are simultaneously true:
1. telegram is not an encrypted app
2. it is marketed as an encrypted app
3. the arrest of Telegram’s founder is probably possible because it is not an encrypted app
4. the arrest normalizes prosecuting people who build encrypted apps
quoting note169u…0w8xThe French government's press release on Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is completely unhinged. It not only references complicity in CSAM, money laundering, organized crime and drug trafficking, but also seems to state that Telegram did not acquire a license to provide "cryptology services".
This is interesting because France apparently *does* have regulations which require licenses for the distribution of cryptology unless used for authentication purposes, as governed by the Code de la Defense.
[Not a lawyer, just researching my way through this hot mess.]
Full press release:
https://www.tribunal-de-paris.justice.fr/sites/default/files/2024-08/2024-08-26%20-%20CP%20TELEGRAM%20.pdf
Full regulation on cryptology:
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/JORFTEXT000000801164