TARGETED KILLING

1 more Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli army in Gaza: Local authorities

New death brings death toll among journalists in Gaza killed by Israel since Oct. 7 to 171

Anadolu staff |26.08.2024 - 



GAZA CITY, Palestine

Another Palestinian journalist was killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, local authorities said on Monday.

In a statement, the Gaza-based Government Media Office mourned journalist Ali Tuaima, who was killed by the Israeli army, but did not specify where he was killed in Gaza.

The statement urged the international community and international press groups to deter Israel and prosecute it before the international courts for crimes committed against Palestinians, and journalists in particular.

Tuaima's death brings the death toll among journalists in Gaza killed by Israel since Oct. 7 to 171, the Government Media Office noted.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

The onslaught has resulted in over 40,400 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and over 93,500 injuries, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar

Foreign workers trapped for days in tunnel after landslide in Thailand still alive, rescuers say

Rescuers from state and private agencies are clearing the soil that slid down the mountain, trapping the trio. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Aug 27, 2024

Three workers trapped inside a tunnel that was under construction as part of the Thai-Chinese high-speed railway in Nakhon Ratchasima in north-east Thailand are still alive, Pak Chong district chief Kanatchon Sricharoen said on Aug 26.

A Chinese foreman, a Chinese backhoe operator and a Myanmar dump truck driver became trapped inside the tunnel that was being constructed in Tambon Chan Thuek in Pak Chong district after a landslide on Aug 24.

Rescuers from state and private agencies have been pumping oxygen into the tunnel to keep the workers alive and are clearing the soil that slid down the mountain, trapping the trio.

Mr Kanatchon explained that the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation arrived at the scene around midnight to support the rescue, adding that the department’s radar scanner had detected vital signs from trapped workers.

He said the rescue team had inserted a 1.2m tube into the area where vital signs were detected before deploying officials to clear the soil inside and rescue the workers.

“The detection of vital signs proves that they are still alive,” he said, adding that officials will evaluate the victims’ health before sending them to Pakchong Nana Hospital.


Mr Kanatchon confirmed that a rescue plan has been set up to assist the trapped workers as soon as possible. 

THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

Cameroon: ‘Disappeared’ Activist Resurfaces with Marks of Torture

Release Cotta, Ensure Access to Medical Care, Investigate Abuse Allegations


Click to expand Image
Ramon Cotta (right), born Yves Kibouy Bershu, and also known as Steve Akam, with his lawyer Hippolyte Tiakouang Meli, on August 20, 2024, in military court in Yaoundé, Cameroon. © 2024 Private

(Nairobi) – Cameroon’s authorities and security forces forcibly disappeared Ramon Cotta, a social media activist, and apparently tortured him, Human Rights Watch said today. Cotta, born Yves Kibouy Bershu, has been living in Gabon for the past 10 years, where he also went by the name of Steve Akam. He is known for his TikTok videos in which he criticizes the Cameroonian authorities.

On August 20, 2024, lawyers representing Cotta told Human Rights Watch that they had located him in a security cell of the military court in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, paralyzed on his left side and with “severe visual impairments,” following torture in detention. The last time Cotta had been seen was in a video circulated on social media on July 21, where he stood handcuffed and surrounded by members of the Cameroonian police at a border post between Gabon and Cameroon, in the Cameroonian town of Kye-Ossi. The authorities should immediately release Cotta, ensure that he urgently has access to adequate and appropriate medical care, and investigate his apparent torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in detention.

“There are worrying reports that Cotta may already have lost his sight and ability to walk properly as a result of torture, so prompt action is immediately needed,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Cameroonian authorities should ensure that he urgently gets access to appropriate and adequate medical care, and thoroughly investigate Cotta’s apparent torture.”

Cotta’s lawyers said the Gabonese police arrested their client in Libreville, Gabon’s capital, on July 19 at about 10 a.m., and held him incommunicado in an unidentified location until July 21, when they handed him over to the Cameroonian authorities. The authorities then took him to the Directorate General for External Research (Direction Générale de la Recherche Extérieure, or DGRE), the headquarters of Cameroon’s intelligence services in Yaoundé. His lawyers said that on July 24, Cotta was transferred to the State Defense Secretariat (Secrétariat d’Etat à la défense), the headquarters of the National Gendarmerie, also in Yaoundé, where he is still being held.

Cotta’s lawyers said DGRE members interrogated Cotta twice, and tortured him, including with serious beatings during one of the interrogations, and subjected him to other inhuman and degrading treatment.

“Cotta told us that DGRE agents tied his hands and feet and walked over him repeatedly, and that they beat him multiple times,” said Hippolyte Tiakouang Meli, one of Cotta’s lawyers. “He also reported that he was held in a room where he was exposed to very bright lights through a projector, which caused him serious eye issues.”

Cotta’s lawyers said their client has been charged with acts of terrorism, insurrection, financing of terrorism, arms trafficking, and insulting the head of state and members of the government. They said he was not taken before a judge, but instead before the military prosecutor twice. “The first time, we were not informed,” said Meli. “The second time, on August 20, we were informed and could speak with our client.” Cameroonian law gives the military judicial system jurisdiction over civilians charged with terrorism offences, even though this is incompatible with international norms. The UN Human Rights Committee has long called on Cameroon to reform this aspect of its laws, which violates fair trial guarantees.

On August 7, lawyers representing Cotta had sent requests for information to various Cameroonian authorities about their client’s situation and whereabouts, to no avail. They had also expressed concerns that Cameroonian authorities extrajudicially returned Cotta to Cameroon from Gabon, and that he was a victim of an enforced disappearance.

The Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, a prominent Cameroonian human rights group, and Maurice Kamto, the head of the main opposition party Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon, had both called on authorities to immediately reveal Cotta’s whereabouts.

The Cameroonian government has for years cracked down on opposition and free speech, jailing political activists, journalists, and dissidents. Ahead of the general elections in 2025, it has increasingly restricted freedoms of expression and association.

In March, the territorial administration minister banned two opposition coalitions, describing them as “clandestine movements.” In June, gendarmes in N’Gaoundéré, Adamawa region, arbitrarily rearrested a prominent artist, Aboubacar Siddiki, known as Babadjo, for “insulting” a governor.

In July, the head of the Mfoundi administrative division issued a decree threatening to ban anyone insulting state institutions from the division. Also in July, members of the intelligence services in Douala, Littoral region, arrested Junior Ngombe, a social media activist, for his TikTok videos advocating democratic change. Ngombe was released on bail on July 31.

In an August 7 statement following a visit to Cameroon, Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said the process leading up to the elections will be “a key opportunity … to ensure the free expression of political opinions.”

Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have previously documented the widespread use of torture and incommunicado detention in Cameroon’s detention centers, including ungazetted detention facilities, such as military barracks.

Under human rights law, all forms of torture, as well as inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment of detainees, are strictly prohibited, and Cameroonian law provides that detainees shall not be subjected to any physical or mental constraints, or to torture, and that their counsel and families should be able to visit them at any time.

“Instead of respecting the work of social media activists, Cameroon’s authorities and security forces forcibly disappeared and apparently tortured Cotta,” Allegrozzi said. “They should release him as a matter of urgency and ensure that his rights are respected.”

 

Leftists in France seeking ways to oust Macron from power

27 August 2024 

Deputies of the left-wing "The Rebellious Movement" party will submit a proposal to the National Assembly (the lower house of the parliament) to remove Emmanuel Macron from the post of president of the republic.

Azernews reports that the party's national coordinator, Manuel Bompard said this in a post on X.

Politicians rely on Article 68 of the French Constitution. The party made this decision after Macron refused to appoint the candidate of the left-wing New Popular Front as prime minister.

Bompard also called on all left-wing supporters to march in protest against the president's decision.

Macron rules out left-wing government amid entrenched deadlock


By AFP
August 26, 2024


Macron is under pressure to name a new premier - Copyright AFP Juan Pablo FLORES

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday ruled out naming a left-wing government to end the country’s political deadlock, saying it would be a threat to “institutional stability”.

Macron has been searching in successive rounds of talks for a new prime minister since elections in July gave a left-wing alliance the most seats in parliament but not enough to govern.

The president rejected left-wing claims to govern after talks Monday with far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen and other political leaders.

While some reports said Macron had wanted to name a prime minister on Tuesday, the president said in a statement that he would launch a new round of talks on Tuesday and called for parties to cooperate.

“My responsibility is that the country is not blocked nor weakened,” Macron said in a statement.

The July election left the 577-seat National Assembly divided between the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance with over 190 seats, followed by Macron’s centrist alliance at around 160 and Le Pen’s National Rally at 140.

The NFP, particularly the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), has demanded the right to form a government but centrist and right-wing parties have vowed to vote it down in any confidence vote.

A left-wing government “would be immediately censored by all the other groups represented in the National Assembly” and “the institutional stability of our country therefor requires us not to choose this option”, Macron said.

Macron said he would hold talks with party leaders and “personalities distinguished by experience in the service of the state and the Republic”.

Without naming the LFI, the president called on socialists, ecologists and communists in the left alliance to “cooperate with other political forces”.

The hard-left LFI reacted with fury, with its coordinator Manuel Bompard calling Macron’s comments an “unacceptable anti-democratic coup”.

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon posted on X that Macron had created “a situation of exceptional gravity” and called for a “firm and strong response” by the public and politicians.

Macron has left Gabriel Attal as caretaker government leader for a post-war record time since the two-round election as he seeks a figure with enough broad support to survive a confidence vote.

The pressure is on however as the deadline to present a draft 2025 budget for the heavily indebted government is just over a month away.

Leftist parties have pushed for Macron to appoint one of their nominees as prime minister as they have most seats. They had named 37-year-old economist and civil servant Lucie Castets as their prospective candidate.

Melenchon even said there could be a left-wing government without ministers from his party, but this has still been opposed by Macron and centre-right parties.

The president has repeatedly called LFI an “extreme” movement, attempting to brand the party as equally beyond the pale as Le Pen’s.

Since Melenchon’s offer, centre-right parties have focused attention on the NFP’s big-spending manifesto at a time when France is battling a record budget deficit and a debt mountain.

Attal reaffirmed the opposition to the LFI in a letter to deputies that called Melenchon’s offer an “attempted coup”, saying it would be “inevitable” that an NFP government would lose a vote of confidence.

UN’s Guterres issues ‘global SOS’ over fast-rising Pacific ocean


By AFP
August 26, 2024

A cemetery on the shoreline in Majuro Atoll is flooded from high tides and ocean surges in the low-lying Marshall Islands, a Pacific atoll chain that rises barely a metre above sea level - Copyright Japan's Ministry of Defense/AFP Handout

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced a global climate “SOS” at a Pacific islands summit on Tuesday, unveiling research that shows the region’s seas rising much more swiftly than global averages.

“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS — Save Our Seas — on rising sea levels. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril” he said.

Sparsely populated and with few heavy industries, the Pacific islands collectively pump out less than 0.02 percent of global emissions every year.

But this vast arc of volcanic islands and low-lying coral atolls also inhabits a tropical corridor that is rapidly threatened by encroaching oceans.

The World Meterological Organisation has been monitoring tide gauges installed on the Pacific’s famed beaches since the early 1990s.

A new report released by the top UN climate monitoring body showed seas had risen by around 15 centimetres in some parts of the Pacific in the last 30 years.

The global average was 9.4 centimetres, according to the report.

“It is increasingly evident that we are fast running out of time to turn the tide,” said the forecasting agency’s top official Celeste Saulo.

Some sites, particularly in Kiribati and Cook Islands, measured a rise that matched or was just under the global average.

But other sites, such as the capital cities of Samoa and Fiji, were rising almost three times higher.

In low-lying Pacific nation Tuvalu, land is already so scarce that throngs of children use the tarmac at the international airport as their own makeshift playground.

Scientists have warned that, even under some moderate scenarios, Tuvalu could be almost entirely wiped off the map within the next 30 years.

“It’s disaster after disaster, and we are losing the capacity to rebuild, to withstand another cyclone or another flood,” Tuvalu Climate Minister Maina Talia told AFP on the summit’s sidelines.

“For low-lying island states, it’s a matter of survival for us.”

The plight of Pacific islands has been easily overlooked in the past, given their relative isolation and lack of economic might.

But the region is increasingly seen by scientists as a climate canary in the coal mine, hinting at the troubles possibly facing other parts of the planet.

“This new report confirms what Pacific leaders have been saying for years,” Australian climate researcher Wes Morgan told AFP.

“Climate change is their top security threat. Pacific nations are in a fight for survival, and cutting climate pollution is key to their future.”

Surrounded by millions of square miles of tropical ocean, the South Pacific is uniquely threatened by sea-level rise.

The vast majority of people live within five kilometres of the coast, according to the United Nations.

Rising seas are swallowing up scarce land and tainting vital food and water sources.

Warmer waters are also fuelling more intense natural disasters, while ocean acidification slowly kills the reefs that nourish key marine food chains.

Biden administration pressured Meta to censor Covid content: Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg told the Republican panel that in 2021, "senior officials" from the White House "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humour and satire."


Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

India Today World Desk
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Aug 27, 2024 

Written By: Akhilesh Nagari

In Short

Meta CEO says White House was frustrated after Meta refusal

Zuckerberg regrets not being more outspoken

Meta down-ranked Biden corruption story based on FBI warning

Mark Zuckerberg, in a letter to the US House Judiciary Committee of the Republican Party, claimed that the Biden-Harris administration "repeatedly pressured" his company, Facebook, to censor Covid-related posts. While expressing "regrets" for not being "more outspoken" about it, the Meta Chief Executive Officer (CEO) also alleged that his social media platform had to make certain modifications that "with the benefit of hindsight and new information," they would not make today.
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"There’s a lot of talk right now around how the US government interacts with companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position," Zuckerberg wrote in a letter addressed to the panel.

"Our platforms are for everyone – we’re about promoting speech and helping people connect in a safe and secure way. As part of this, we regularly hear from governments around the world and others with various concerns around public discourse and public safety."

He told the panel that in 2021, "senior officials" from the White House "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humour and satire."

When his company refused to agree with the censorship, the Meta CEO said that the Biden administration expressed a lot of frustration.

"Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure," he wrote.

The US House Judiciary panel posted Zuckerberg's letter on X, with the caption reading, "Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech."



Taking a veiled dig at the Democrats, Musk, while retweeting Zuckerberg's letter on his official X handle, said, "Sounds like a First Amendment violation."

In his letter, Zuckerberg also recounted that before the 2020 election, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had alerted Meta to a possible Russian disinformation campaign targeting the Biden family and Burisma. Acting on this warning, Meta decided to down-rank a story that alleged corruption involving the Biden family. However, Zuckerberg clarified that, in hindsight, the decision to demote the story was a mistake, as it was not part of a Russian disinformation effort.

"That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply. It's since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story," Zuckerberg said.

Telegram is a bigger headache than Elon Musk’s X for the EU

France’s arrest of tech prodigy spotlights messaging service that shelters those who want to avoid government attention.

Telegram has grown over the past decade to rival Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service. | Buda Mendes/Getty Images

August 26, 2024 8:08 pm CET
By Pieter Haeck

BRUSSELS — You thought Elon Musk and X were a problem?

The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov spotlights a messaging platform that is an even bigger headache for European governments than the app formerly known as Twitter.

Telegram's claims that users' privacy was sacrosanct and that chats weren't visible to governments or even to Telegram itself have attracted cybercriminals, pedophiles and terrorists even as the company described itself as a haven for "pro-democracy movements around the world."

Unlike tech billionaire Musk, who waged public spats over the EU's push to police online content, Telegram and Durov have previously managed to stay under the radar as policymakers tried to crack down on illegal content or behavior on the app.

"It's hard to get in touch with Telegram and make arrangements," a Dutch minister explained in January when grilled by local lawmakers on a media report about illegal drugs offered via public Telegram chats.

But thanks to one high-profile, late-night arrest at a Paris airport, Telegram now faces the harsh glare of the regulatory, political and judicial spotlight.
Going mainstream

Initially a fringe platform, Telegram has grown over the past decade to rival Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service.

Durov founded Telegram in 2013 with his brother Nikolai, building on their success in launching Russia's answer to Facebook, VKontakte, in 2006. Keeping its customers' secrets was a key part of Telegram's appeal, making it an attractive app for anyone wanting to avoid government scrutiny.

"Telegram has historically had problems with regulators in some parts of the world because, unlike other services, we consistently defended our users' privacy and have never made any deals with governments," Durov wrote in 2017, having fled Russia years earlier after refusing to shut down opposition groups on VKontakte.

His app boomed, surging to 900 million users globally and becoming an essential communications tool in closely watched conflicts, such as Russia's war on Ukraine, where both sides use it.

The platform is Dubai-based, and Durov has dual citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates. Press requests are handled by an automated bot on Telegram's platform. The company has no known Brussels presence and isn't registered in the European Union's transparency register.

That has allowed Telegram to avoid several EU efforts to curb online misconduct.

The EU didn't manage to enlist Telegram for its voluntary code of practice on disinformation, for example, which was launched in 2018 and revised in 2022. Major players like Google, Meta and TikTok signed the pledge, but Telegram held out.

That changed in February when the EU finally managed to connect with Telegram as the Digital Services Act (DSA) forced the platform to obey various requirements.

"This includes removing illegal content, cooperating with national authorities, [and] respecting removal orders when national authorities make such orders," European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told POLITICO.

Telegram has been engaging with EU officials, he said.

"We have exchanges with the platform, with all the platforms, including Telegram. When we ask something [of] Telegram, we get a reply," he said.
Range of criminal acts

But as Saturday's arrest shows, European governments are still figuring out how to handle Telegram.

The French prosecutor's office said it was looking into possible cybercrime, alleging Telegram was complicit in a range of criminal acts such as possession of child pornography, drug trafficking and organized fraud.

This is a separate line of attack from EU content moderation enforcement, where Belgium's telecoms watchdog would be in charge of monitoring Telegram's EU base in Brussels.

The European Commission only supervises the largest platforms that have more than 45 million users; Telegram claims it has fewer than that in the EU.

The Belgian authority told POLITICO it wasn't involved in the French criminal investigation and hadn't been informed of any failure by Telegram to remove illegal content. The Commission said the arrest wasn't related to the DSA.

Musk was quick to turn Durov's arrest into a free-speech battle, however: "#FreePavel," he posted on X.

Océane Herrero contributed reporting from Paris.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M 

Rumble CEO on the Run After Telegram CEO Arrest

End of the line for fake casino streamers + shady gambling affiliates on Rumble?

by Natasha Lyndon - Monday, August 26th, 2024



Following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov for allegedly failing to mitigate the misuse of the platform for criminal activities, attentions have now turned to video streaming platform Rumble, a haven for gambling & casino streamers, affiliates and fake casino streamers.
Durov Arrest

French judicial authorities arrested Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov on Sunday August 25th. Authorities have since extended his detention to 96 hours.

He was detained for breaching The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Since August 25th, 2023, the EU designates platform service providers with more than 45 million users within its borders as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP). These providers are then subject to rules that hold them legally accountable for the content posted on their platforms.

Rumble currently has an average monthly user total of 53 million up from 50 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Rumble – Home to Affiliates promoting Illegal casinos, & Fake Gambling Streamers

Rumble became the go-to platform for streamers of games at unlicensed casinos and fake streamers after Twitch Twitch updated its rules in relation to gambling in September of 2022. The new policy saw the platform ban the “streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games.” These streams are only banned if the websites in question are not licensed in a country or state that provides ‘sufficient consumer protection’. Poker and sports betting were not included in the ban.

The gambling policy was brought into force following a scandal involving a streamer accused of scamming users and other content creators. The alleged scammer—popular streamer ‘Sliker’—was accused of cheating his followers and fellow content creators out of $200,000 in order to fund his gambling addiction.

The new policy saw a wave of popular live streamers leave the platform and make their way to Rumble which has no explicit limitations on the streaming of gambling content. The platform’s terms and conditions forbids pornography, harassment, racism, antisemitism, copyright infringement, and illegal content.

This allows streamers on Rumble to promote gambling from unlicensed gambling websites without restrictions. The lax restrictions also led to an influx of fake streamers and affiliates. In many cases, these streamers are paid by unlicensed casinos to stream using virtual cash to win fake jackpots. These are marketed as genuine ‘live wins’ encouraging sign ups from unsuspecting new customers.
Rumble Under Threat – CEO Defiant

Following Durov’s arrest Rumble CEO and founder Chris Pavlovski made a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

I’m a little late to this, but for good reason — I’ve just safely departed from Europe.

France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech.

Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release.

A day earlier, Pavlovski stated that both France and Brazil had threatened Rumble and the platform had withdrawn from the markets. The company is also under fire in the UK and New Zealand while it is already banned in China and Russia.

While government are primarily focused on the restriction of illegal content and activity on Rumble, the company’s decision to remove itself from certain markets does not bode well for gambling streamers.

Rumble is not quite at the same level as Twitch in its prime. However, it still hosts a substantial number of recorded videos and live streams in its various slots and gambling channels. Should other governments follow France’s lead and threaten Rumble with legal action, then it’s possible that it will remove access in those markets, limiting the ability for affiliates to stream and promote unlicensed gambling sites.

Natasha Lyndon
Based in London, Natasha is a former sports journalist with experience working for some of the biggest athletes & brands in the world of sports and iGaming.

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Durov: Mysterious and controversial Telegram founder

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/08/ex-bush-strategist-warns-against-top.html

Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/08/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-arrested.html

Telegram channel of DDoSecrets shut down shortly after publication of Israeli ministry of justice 'leak'

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/08/telegram-channel-of-ddosecrets-shut.html

Telegram-linked crypto token sheds USD2.7B after CEO held

August 27, 2024

ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – A digital asset from a blockchain project linked to Telegram Messenger has lost about USD2.7 billion in market value, reflecting the uncertainty sparked by the detention of the messaging app’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive.

Toncoin, the token of The Open Network (TON), slid more than 20 per cent after Pavel Durov was taken into custody at a Paris airport on August 24 on suspicion of failing to take steps to prevent criminal use of Telegram.

The 10th largest cryptoasset pared some of the drop to trade at USD5.69 as of 10.36am yesterday in Singapore but is still down 16 per cent as a result of the unfolding drama over 39-year-old Durov, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

TON blockchain has access to Telegram’s 900 million monthly users via a partnership and seeks to enable services such as in-app payments and games. TON’s rise spurred speculation that Telegram has a shot at becoming a “super app” in the style of Chinese giants like WeChat.

The value of assets locked on the TON blockchain surged this year to a peak of USD1.1 billion last month but the figure has now retreated to USD661 million, data from DefiLlama show. Toncoin’s price more than tripled in the past year and the token has a current market value of about USD14.4 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The three-year-old foundation behind the project says it’s separate from Telegram. But the ties between Telegram and TON turned the latter into one of crypto’s most-hyped initiatives. Pantera Capital Management in May described a purchase of Toincoin as the firm’s largest-ever investment.

Telegram Turmoil Threatens Dominant Chronicle of the War in Ukraine

The detention of Telegram’s founder has highlighted the messaging app’s outsize status in Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.

Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of Telegram, in San Francisco in 2014.

Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

By Anatoly Kurmanaev
Reporting from Berlin
Aug. 26, 2024

The detention of Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, in Paris on Saturday has raised questions about the future of a platform that has come to define the public perception of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion in 2022 helped transform Telegram from a niche communication tool for Russia’s educated classes into a global phenomenon. The app has allowed millions of people to follow battlefield developments in near real time, turned soldiers into the narrators of the conflict unfolding around them and gave both propagandists and dissidents a pulpit in the struggle for the hearts and minds of those monitoring the war.

Telegram was founded by Mr. Durov with his brother in 2013. Mr. Durov, a Russian-born French citizen, was arrested in connection with an investigation opened last month into criminal activity on the app and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement, French prosecutors said.

One in two Russian citizens use Telegram today, either to obtain information or to communicate with others, up from about 38 percent at the start of the war, according to the Levada Center, an independent Russian pollster.

Many Russians turned to the messaging app for news about the war after the Kremlin banned most other major Western social media platforms in the country, including Facebook and Instagram. The government has also shuttered the few independent newspapers, websites, and radio and television stations, and jailed hundreds of people for questioning the official narrative of the war.

About one in four Russians each day read Telegram’s public message boards, called channels, which provide a more unvarnished view of the war, according to a poll conducted by Levada in April. Five years ago, that figure was a mere 1 percent.

Others are drawn to the app’s strong encryption and privacy settings, which make it an attractive means of communicating sensitive information at a time of escalating censorship and repression in Russia.

The combination of Telegram’s large audience and the platform’s perceived security have made it a favorite communication tool in Russia for champions of the invasion and opponents alike.

Independent journalists now in exile have used the app to continue covering the war and informing the Russian audience about its toll. Previously obscure military buffs and satellite data analysts amassed millions of followers on Telegram after the invasion, becoming vital arbiters of opinion on the course of the war. Volunteers have used the app to raise donations for the troops and to help evacuate civilians caught in the fighting.
Telegram has also become a prominent source of war information in Ukraine. Many in the country, for example, turn to Telegram for air raid alerts, which are considered to be faster than the official government app.

A mother read news about the war on Telegram while her daughter played last year in Kyiv.Credit...Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times


But perhaps most tellingly, frontline soldiers have turned to Telegram to document their lives and deaths, changing the very nature of how information spreads in wartime. Telegram’s lack of restrictions on violent content means the app has become a portal for some of the most gruesome combat videos, exposing the reality of a 21st century war where drones and body cameras have created an unmatched amount of real-time footage.

Russian soldiers also regularly use Telegram to communicate military information with each other, highlighting how the war in Ukraine has been fought by a combination of military and commercial technologies, which also include hobby drones and Starlink routers.

“To date, Telegram has become perhaps the main means of units’ command and control” a pro-war collective of Russian military analysts, known as Rybar, wrote on Telegram after Mr. Durov’s detention.

Rybar added that Mr. Durov’s detention has exposed Russia’s need to develop more secure channels of military communications.

Telegram’s power to shape the narrative of the war became clear in the summer of 2023, when the Russian warlord Yevgeny V. Prigozhin used the messaging app to announce — and then narrate — his short-lived rebellion against the Russian military command. Millions in Russia and abroad watched on Telegram images and videos of Mr. Prigozhin’s armored columns move toward Moscow as the country’s television channels played their usual entertainment programs.

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin in an image taken from video posted on the Telegram account of his company, Concord, last year.

Credit...Concord Group/Telegram, via Agence France-Presse

Mr. Durov’s detention is now threatening Telegram’s status as the dominant medium chronicling the war.

Some analysts said his detention could complicate the company’s fund-raising, stirring doubts about its future financial viability. Others have expressed concerns about the sustainability of Telegram privacy protections after the French media reported that the country’s law enforcement agents are seeking access to the database of private chats on the app.

A Russian Telegram channel close to the country’s intelligence agencies, called Baza, reported on Monday that the country’s security officials have received a directive to delete the app from their phones.

“Everyone who got accustomed to using Telegram for sensitive conversations and chats must immediately delete them, and don’t do it in the future,” Margarita Simonyan, a Russian state media executive and prominent propagandist, wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

The Russian government has tried to get people off Telegram before, partly out of fear of providing the company run by Mr. Durov with sensitive national security information. But a 2018 effort to block access to the app proved largely futile, and the government abandoned those efforts two years later.

Since then, Telegram has become the main channel for Russian government announcements.

Andrew E. Kramer and Marc Santora contributed reporting.

Anatoly Kurmanaev covers Russia and its transformation following the invasion of Ukraine. More about Anatoly Kurmanaev\

\A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 27, 2024, Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: App’s Turmoil Threatens Dominant Tool Used to Chronicle Fighting in Ukraine. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: Russia-Ukraine War, Pavel Durov

‘Russians do everything via Telegram.’ Pavel Durov’s arrest upends Kremlin military comms

Although Durov publicly distances himself from Moscow, his platform has become vital for Russian army coordination in Ukraine.

Telegram is the primary vehicle for pro-war military bloggers and media — as well as millions of ordinary Russians.

 | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

August 26, 2024 
By Veronika Melkozerova

KYIV — French authorities detained Pavel Durov on allegations that his Telegram social media platform was being used for child pornography, drug trafficking and organized crime — but the immediate freakout came from Russia.

That's because Telegram is widely used by the Russian military for battlefield communications thanks to problems with rolling out its own secure comms system. It's also the primary vehicle for pro-war military bloggers and media — as well as millions of ordinary Russians.

“They practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army,” Russian military blogger channel Povernutie na Z Voine said in a Telegram statement.

The blog site Dva Mayora said that Russian specialists are working on an alternative to Telegram, but that the Russian army's Main Communications Directorate has "not shown any real interest" in getting such a system to Russian troops. The site said Durov's arrest may actually speed up the development of an independent comms system.

Alarmed Russian policymakers are calling for Durov's release.

“[Durov’s] arrest may have political grounds and be a tool for gaining access to the personal information of Telegram users," the Deputy Speaker of the Russian Duma Vladislav Davankov said in a Telegram statement. "This cannot be allowed. If the French authorities refuse to release Pavel Durov from custody, I propose making every effort to move him to the UAE or the Russian Federation. With his consent, of course."

Their worry is that Durov may hand over encryption keys to the French authorities, allowing access to the platform and any communications that users thought was encrypted.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the arrest of Durov was "in no way a political decision."

The Russian embassy has demanded that it get access to Durov, but the Kremlin has so far not issued a statement on the arrest.

"Before saying anything, we should wait for the situation to become clearer," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

However, officials and law enforcement agencies were instructed to clear all their communication from Telegram, the pro-Kremlin channel Baza reported.

"Everyone who is used to using the platform for sensitive conversations/conversations should delete those conversations right now and not do it again," Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan said in a Telegram post. "Durov has been shut down to get the keys. And he's going to give them."

Telegram's dark side

Telegram's lack of moderation has made it a haven for illicit gun and drug trafficking in the West, and a tool of communication, recruitment of saboteurs and propaganda in the East, Nazar Tokar, head of Kremlingram, an investigative group of activists studying Telegram’s security and its potential ties to the Kremlin, told POLITICO.

“Russians do everything via Telegram. They are recruiting agents and people for counter-activities. Today in Ukraine, a popular campaign is to recruit people who would burn Ukrainian military cars. And it is quite successful. They coordinate their military efforts using it,” Tokar said.

Telegram denied accusations that it was allowing dangerous content, saying it abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act. It insisted its moderation meets industry standards and is constantly improving.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information,” Telegram said in a statement.

Tokar argues that Telegram has become so popular not just because it is convenient and fast, as well as having its own cryptocurrency and many free functions, but because it allows access to a seamy underworld of illicit activities.

“You just install the free app and get easy access to buying guns, drugs, explicit and violent content ... anything. It is all available simply by searching. And this is not so easily available anywhere in other messengers,” Tokar said.

Despite the platform being used by the Russian military, Telegram denies any ties to the Russian government, adding that it is “essential for freedom of speech.”

While the Kremlin has clamped down on most other social media platforms, Telegram has not been banned or limited, Tokar said. That's despite Durov saying he fled Russia in 2014 after the Kremlin demanded access to data on his previous social media company Vkontakte about Ukrainian pro-democracy protesters who took part in the country's 2014 revolution.

Ukraine's military largely uses the Signal platform for its communications, but most government agencies, including the president's office, have Telegram channels. It is also widely used for personal messages and blogs by Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

Durov's arrest has revived a heated discussion in Ukraine about whether Kyiv should ban the platform, Tokar said.

But Telegram is much more important to Russia than to Ukraine.

“I think that the Russians are panicking because they are trying to predict possible outcomes for their essential communications tool and are trying to protect themselves and remove information from there. But everything will depend on the French government and the courts — whether they will imprison Durov, or come to an agreement and release him and he in return will provide them with some information — we do not know yet,” Tokar said.