Monday, September 2

The founder and CEO of social media network Telegram has been arrested in Paris, France, on multiple different charges.

Russian technology entrepreneur Pavel Durov, who founded VK, Russia's most popular social media app, and Telegram, was indicted in Paris after flying in from Azerbaijan on numerous charges of allowing various criminal activities to continue undetected on Telegram.

Telegram helps provide shelter for many illegal businesses, and Durov has been criticized in the past for allowing their deals to go through. According to governments, the platform almost never responds to requests to remove or block content and channels-- not just in France, but all over Europe. Durov takes a similar approach to free speech as fellow businessman Elon Musk, the chairman of X, which is more relaxed towards online censorship. However, many governments do not agree with that approach, as shown this weekend when Brazil banned X because it refused to take down certain accounts.

The company, which is based in Dubai, has 900 million monthly users, making it the eighth-most popular social media network in the world. Many users in countries with authoritarian governments rely on Telegram to communicate due to its relaxed censorship rules, and Durov has aimed to create a platform with rules like that. He stated that his time in Russia helped change his view to believe more strongly in free speech and restriction-less social media. However, social media networks with those rules also harbor more uncensored illegal businesses, inappropriate content, and other criminal activities.

As for Durov, he managed to escape jail by paying a fine of 5 million euros ($5.52 million), which was a cinch for the Russian billionaire with a net worth of $15.5 billion. His charges could have landed him in jail for up to 10 years, though. He has been released from custody but is required to check in with police twice a week. Durov currently has dual citizenship in both France and the United Arab Emirates, where he lives and manages Telegram, and has previously maintained citizenship in Russia and Saint Kitts and Nevis in the past three years.

His arrest is part of a newly surfacing debate focused on whether executives are responsible for actions other people take on their platforms. Nevertheless, other tech executives, like the CEOs of Facebook and YouTube, should not be worried. All of these issues are due to Telegram's relaxed censorship rules, which are drastically different compared to the likes of Meta's social media networks and others like Snapchat.

Cases like this are becoming more common as the global rift over free speech gets wider and wider: should there be more restrictions for a safer online environment or less restrictions for a freer online environment? In all of this, there is another question as well: are CEOs responsible for what happens online within their platform? Respond with your thoughts in the polls at the bottom of the article.

Upcoming Events for this week:

• International Day of Charity (Thursday, September 5)

• International Day of Police Cooperation (Saturday, September 7)

• World Duchenne Awareness Day (Saturday, September 7)

• International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies (Saturday, September 7)

• International Literacy Day (Sunday, September 8)

• Paralympic Games End (Sunday, September 8)

• US Open Ends (Sunday, September 8)

Should there be more restrictions for a safer online environment or less restrictions for a freer online environment?

• More restrictions, safer online.
• Less restrictions, freer online.

Are CEOs responsible for what happens online within their platform?

• Yes.
• No, nobody is.
• No, the company is.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): The Seven Dwarfs in Snow White have names: Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, and Sleepy.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): If you’re not failing 90% of the time, then you’re probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems. (Alan Kay)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Skirl (verb)- Skirl means "to play the bagpipes" when the subject of the sentence is a person, as in "the piper skirled." When bagpipes are the subject (as in "the bagpipes skirled"), skirl means "to emit the high shrill tone of the chanter," with chanter referring to the reed pipe on which the bagpipe's melody is played.

In a Sentence: The attention of the parade-goers was fully captured the instant the bagpipers began skirling.