How Telegram's Founder Pavel Durov Became a Culture War Martyr

Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France, and the article argues that the culture war response to the arrest misreads both Telegram and the case. According to a press release from the Tribunal Judiciaire De Paris, a preliminary investigation that started on July 8 led to charges that include enabling illegal transactions, complicity in distributing child sexual abuse material, complicity in organized fraud, and money laundering. The article says Telegram's group chats are not encrypted and encryption is not on by default, so it is not accurately described as an encrypted messaging app. Conservatives who promoted Telegram over Signal, including Ian Miles Cheong, have called the arrest politically motivated.