Telegram Founder & CEO Pavel Durov Arrested In France, 'He Has Nothing To Hide': Telegram | ET Now

uh coming in from France where in global messaging app telegram was in Spotlight after founder and Russia born billionaire pav durov was arrested in France on Saturday in fact the 39-year-old Russia born billionaire was reportedly accused of failing to mitigate the misuse of his platform for alleged criminal activities in fact in a statement then telegram says that jurov has nothing to hide and that its moderation is within industry standards now Pavel has found support in none other than Elon Musk uh the SP asex and Tesla CEO who said that it's vital to support Free Speech but critics have told or have argued rather that telegram allows groups of up to two lakh members that makes it easier for misinformation to spread and for users to share conspiracist uh pedophilic or Terror related content so what to make of this arrest then in light of those arguments that are coming in well uh to discuss that and more further I'm now joined by Rohit Kumar the founding partner at the quantum Hub which is a tech policy platform thank you very much Rohit for join joining us here on ET now now several are claiming that the arrest is politically motivated and it's an attack on Free Speech however there are concerns perhaps those are valid as well that the platform wasn't really able to provide effective moderation and it allowed for illegal activities would you say the allegations hold water and what do you really make of the arrest how do you see it uh I think so it is a lot of details are not out right away so it's difficult to sort of come to that conclusion uh we have been working on intermediary liability and content moderation for a while now and you know this pattern of uh governments feeling uncomfortable with platforms um has been there for for a while so you know for instance in the Europe the under the digital Security Act they're also talking about Tik Tok being investigated and some other social media platforms about what kind of uh content is available how safe is the platform so I think this me have been a part of a broader development that's been happening and I'm not sure how specifically I I wouldn't U say we know enough to say that this is politically motivated right uh because the investigations are still going on Rohit as we speak but do you endorse the belief that Mr durov's arrest is an attack on Free Speech many are saying that in fact Mr musk has also spoken about it I think one thing I make of it is that there was a court order that was already available so I think uh from what I understand Mr durov has also been careful about which jurisdictions he's flying into and flying through because he has been worried about government's uh uh you know reacting to his platform's policies uh so I think there was already a order that was made out which is basically that there's a lot of illegal content on the platform and there is apparently not enough effort to be able to make it safe now this is a concern as a tech policy person and saying is something that governments have been saying across the globe DSA the digital Security Act in Europe is reiterating some of this same conversations have happened under the UK they are starting to happen in the US we've seen this happening in India in Mei the bottom line is that governments are feeling out of control and you know especially to control illegal activity on platforms that are encrypted whereas there is also a legitimate concern from the platform side about you know safe har giving users privacy and not letting governments I think it's a difficult thing to sort of yeah and that's a concern Rohit like you said that's a concern as far as governments are also concerned given how fast this technology really is moving but one final question before we let you go how do you think governments can wait through this um you know issue of intermediary liability with respect to social media platforms because we've seen that happen in India as well uh wherein the government has put the liability on platforms whether it was about deep fakes you know just before the general elections or even tweets about a couple of years back in case of Twitter the government has over and over again reiterated that so how can this issue be looked at in a balanced perspective content moderation while also uh balancing a freedom of speech yeah see I think firstly safe aror needs to be respected so that I I believe very strongly which is that platforms cannot necessarily cannot be held liable for the content that is necessarily post being posted on them as long as they are building in certain process checks and balances to try and keep that platform safe for instance under the it rules there are certain procedural requirements that you have to have a grievance redressive committee you have to take down illegal content etc etc so as long as the platform is complying with all of that and trying to take procedures and measures to keep the platform safe it cannot be held liable for the individual content that is getting posted on it so it's it cannot be dependent on the each piece it has to be dependent on the processes so I think as far as and that is the direction in which all legislation like most legislation seems to be going the problem happens when some of these requirements are wague which allow government to misuse those requirements to sort of bully platforms and I think that's the risk we need to sort of avoid absolutely Rohit and there are legitimate concerns as far as governments are also concerned and Safe Harbor needs to be respected that's the word coming in from you but how far can platforms really go well that's a larger debate that we'll perhaps have another day on that note thank you very much for joining us and sharing your thoughts with us on Startup Central on 18 now well viewers with that it times up on Startup Central today but don't forget to share your thoughts with us at Su at now.t let us know what you'd like to watch on the show and let's gocreate this uh show of course do share your feedback with us goodbye and thanks very much for watching [Music]