Telegram CEO paid 'millions' for release out of French jail | LBC analysis

um we always think of tech leaders being interesting people James but let me tell you pavl jff has a 100 children I'm going to start there that's the first bit of information I'll give you I think Christmas must be a nightmare yeah just imagine and he's now in a situation where he appears to be uh up for 12 different criminal charges in uh France as the basis of leading this platform and it's the first time this has ever happened he has um a residency in in France and he also is now in the United Arab Emirates he is a Russian and he's a Russian who left Russia in 2014 when he refused to hand over loads of information to authorities on who was using the service now if you've never heard of telegram it's a platform that has about a billion users most people think it's fully encrypted and is therefore safe for them to do ridiculous things on and post whatever they want right the CH it's not actually fully encrypted it's one of the weirdest myths that's ever been perpetuated everybody on that platform thinks they're completely safe when they're posting they are not however it's been used by lots of people in lots of different countries and the challenge they now face is it would in in European law there is an understanding and a feeling that they're not doing enough to communicate with authorities it's being used in illicit transactions by organized gangs and there's also a complicity um in organized criminal distribution of child sexual abuse images and drug trafficking and and money Laing so so the charge would be aiding and ab betting which is absolutely fascinating and and makes it very easy to understand why Elon Musk has got his pants in a bunch because if if you are own a platform upon which crimes are committed the idea that you are aiding and abetting those crimes could conceivably extend to inciting riots yes but I cannot get my head around why the French representative of meta and the French representative of X has not yet been called for similar situation because if we're looking at this fairly I don't think there is anything worse shared on on T and this is a damning indictment of the modern world yes there's nothing worse on telegram than there is shared on the other platforms uh it given that Elon Musk has basically told the European uh Union to do one and that he'd see them in court you're quite surprised that there hasn't been a similar situation where the representative in in in France has been called in because the platforms you reference are bigger as well so if the offense if the offense is urgent then the greater offender would be the bigger the platform do you want to speculate on that at all do you want to wonder out loud why it might I'm intrigued they got to start somewhere haven't they if they are serious about addressing this kind of thing yeah no I agree with that but why start with the least consequential of platforms meta has billions of users in Europe um X probably doesn't have definitely doesn't have billions of users in Europe but it's talked about by lots of people and in terms of press coverage it over indexes it's talked about all the time in places yeah for mostly being a Cess pit in 2024 but nothing happens with it James nothing those organizations don't get don't have anything happen to them Elon Musk can bait the EU there are some fear they're taking action against Twitter aren't they X Twitter Twitter X they are there are there are there are legal wheels turning yeah there are legal wheels turning they hav ARR an individual could it just be because he was in France oh cuz you're saying he could have arrested the Nick CLE equivalent in France of there are there are leaders Zuckerberg's representative on Earth as it were yeah no exactly and that's what doesn't make a great deal of sense there is potentially depending on what you believe the the political motivation here but he's not pro- Russian pavl jurov has not supported the Russian State and for a period of time telegram was banned in Russia it does get used Now by a load of crazy Russians like Demitri medv the former president who's suggesting every two days that the UK should be nuked etc etc it's used by a lot of um lot of people in Russia and it's one of the most used platforms there some I know this is the one bit of the story I do know a little bit about there's some debate about whether or not his estrangement from the Kremlin was was either authentic or permanent so I I the the Russian element is interesting I'm I'm intrigued by your why him and not the others argument could it just be an organ grinder a monkey issue so that if Elon Musk landed in Paris tomorrow possibly they'd feel his colar as well I'd love if they did because Elon Musk has AR I'm just trying to solve your riddle I'm he is the head hono and they had the chance to get him which they haven't got with Zuckerberg or or musk yet yeah maybe I think I think that that's likely the reality he was there at the right place at the right time and because he had residency in the country they could probably lock him up um but for me I'm I'm intrigued to see where this who's next James because is is this at start of uh Europe saying enough is enough you you social networks have to do more and you have to take all this stuff seriously or is this something else that's politically motivated there allegedly are coners suggestions of conversations between uh macron and jurov in 2018 where he tried to get juru to relocate um uh telegram to Paris and various other stuff but that's all hearsay really I I just I'm Keen to see if this is um I always thought this was going to be the year of big Tech versus big law but now we've kind of got one step up from that it's not lawyers fighting over who's in control you've actually got a state trying to lock up the leader of a company so it's going to be interesting to see what occurs and and and it will hinge upon the statement in a sense that dorov has issued saying that telegram abides by EU law but this bit it is absurd to claim a platform form or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform which is not as clear as dorov would like everybody else to believe I mean just to draw a tiny parallel with what we do if I mean ofcom don't have criminal sanction the broadcast regulator but we would seek to demonstrate to ofcom that we had done everything we could to um mitigate or avoid the breach of their regulations the idea that we can't take any responsibility at all for what goes on on this platform that's absurd yeah it is and it's also I always find it really interesting when the number of people sort of step forward and say oh you know this social network is trying to cancel X Y or Z person they're privately run organizations they can set whatever rules they like but also I don't think they can back away when somebody says they're not doing enough the fact that independent experts for example are saying there is this organized criminal distribution of child sexual abuse images on that platform and uh they can various embedded European organizations recognized as world leaders in trying to get this stuff off the internet cannot get proper conversations with people at telegram should tell you all you need to know about how seriously they're taking their responsibility as a platform and and one wonders finally well whether or not all of the um hard of thinking social media users currently bleating about free speech and orwellian Nightmares realize what it is that they are actually supporting exactly and you've nailed it on the head and for all of those people James who think this a free speech it's it's a free speech Empire um Elon Musk puts uh non-disclosure agreements on pretty much everybody that leaves his company so so much for Mr freedom of speech well got beautifully put and thank you as well for allowing us to ride rough shot over your schedule this morning and being there behind the glass lest we need to break it in cases of emergency um I'm grateful to you