Secret Messengers have Moved Organized Crime, Terror and Riots to the Mainstream. There is a vigorous attack on the arrest of Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov by freedom of speech advocates. Whether Pavel deserved to be arrested, who knows. But using Telegram in a freedom of speech argument is deeply flawed and will ultimately result in governments justifying more over reach through surveillance, censorship and arrests.
Before going further, it should be made clear that the censorship, free speech intimidation, surveillance and arrests occurring in the UK and western Europe are disturbing. One must hope more people become aware of these developments and form opinions. However, basing a freedom of speech argument using Telegram developments given the depth of the atrocities organized on the platform will backfire and sadly make governments believe “the people” have no interest in reason and peace.
Our defense of free speech must be based on peaceful, non-violent resolution along with a deep belief in human flourishing and the power of ideas. Freedom of speech must be distanced from naked violence, terror, human trafficking, fentanyl distribution, support of war-time operations as well as unmitigated dis-information. Sadly, this is exactly what Telegram and secret messengers have come to believe is material to “freedom of speech”. It is wrong.
Below is a short summary of a fuller article to be released soon.
By Kurt Long, co-founder BUNKR
By freeing illegal transactions and associated communications from the DarkWeb secret messengers have made illegal activities of all kinds convenient, faster, less risky and globally connected. The result being trillions of dollars of illegal spending growing faster than ever, 50 million human slaves globally and growing, as well as child abuses on an unprecedented scale. Women, the impoverished, migrants and worn-torn regions suffer dis-proportionally. The vulnerable deserve better treatment.
Estimates come from the United Nations, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as well as a joint report produced by the International Organization for Migrants, and the International Labor Organization.
By incorporating to end-to-end encryption technology secret messaging apps provide foundational support for criminal activities because law enforcement cannot collect evidence even with legal subpoena. There is no criminal accountability and no justice for victims and in society.
If it were our daughter, son, wife, loved one captured for trafficking, coordinated on a secret messenger, I for one would want law enforcement to be able to collect evidence with a legal subpoena.
There are strong rumors that secret messengers do collaborate with law enforcement, even through api’s (programming interfaces) but this runs counter to the foundational marketing of secret messengers.
We truly can do much better than this. Technology should lift up the human condition.
More to come
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