That is the pretext they are using. Blame pockets of illegal activity on an entire platform, arrest, sanction anyone involved and then assume control over the platform. This type of content was all over Reddit and twitter for years, it was never brought up by them and no arrests were made because they don't inherently care about those things AND they already control most platforms. But it is easy to gain support for their actions when almost all people disavow that sort of content, and so people will consent to a heavy handed approach that is actually there to ensure only their propaganda outlets can 'disseminate truth'.

Well said.

But KiK is still around isn't it? CP freaks will always find a way just like cocaine find ways to cross international borders.

Kik – Darknet Diaries

Kik is a wildly popular chat app. Their website says that 1 in 3 American teenagers use Kik. But something dark is brewing on Kik.

Hmm but also they shut down parler simply because donald trump might post there

people using a tool for bad, more often than not, has little do with the person that created a tool. i’m sure a pencil has been used to stab someone in the eye. But was the creator of the pencil at fault ? trying to eradicate private speech in digital space is a poor and unsophisticated method to eradicate pedos from the earth; and i’d be highly suspicious of it being the real reason

Rabble will always believe that centralised authorities are needed to protect people from the bad that happens in the world, and no amount of hypotheticals or real world case studies will convince someone like him otherwise. The challenge and tension comes because individualists understand that perspective, but the collectivists can never understand the perspective in reverse.

ISTR some CSAM task force officers were actually disappointed when Backpage got taken down. Apparently, it had become a sort of low-hanging fruit that made it easier for them to find the perpetrators' ads.

Won’t somebody think of the children?!

I do not know anything about telegram or the ceo but if this is the case the same argument could be applied against the ceo of any private communications system, including damus ceo, amethyst ceo, nos.social ceo, primal ceo. So what is this signalling?

Your assumption may be right but it may also be wrong.

Cheers Geoff

Not buying it. This is like the usual gun control debate. There will always be degenerate users of any technology

Preventing child porn, terrorism or any major crime is not the goal of this arrest. Actually States do very little to prevent this type of crimes. They should start within their own structures. In this way any messenger app or social media that won't comply with corrupt, power hungry governments will be shut down. There is also this:

Upon reading that surely Musk and Zuck would be better targets for arrest? I don't use Telegram so have no skin in this horse but I'll wait for more information before passing judgement.

We know it’s a pretext but that doesn’t mean understanding the pretext is without value.

Nothing against understanding the pretext but this is a political move dressed as anti child porn control. Platforms like Meta and even Twitter have bigger issues related to this problem and nothing is being done. So yes..a pretext but a dangerous one.

The other platforms conform to the ineffectual state requested controls. Telegram choose to neither do e2e encryption nor check for the most basic CSAM known content. The state has endless tolerance for ineffective compliance, but cracks down on direct confrontation.

Don’t forget Facebook too! Facebook is overflowing with pedophiles and human traffickers. It’s not a secret even it’s really well known that fbook has this problem!

Yep!!

I see it as State attacking those they have interest in attacking and not those actually crossing the red line. It's time to call it what it is : attack on freedom of speech and communication in cyber age. This is the front at which State is loosing control rapidly. Zuck is compromised so they won't touch him even when child porn is a well known issue on his platform.

If there are custom CSAM markets on Telegram, real CSAM, wonderful, sting 'em all you got, right? But govt did exactly the opposite. Protecting CIs? Or just hate the free flow of news and information so much they're willing to burn (supposed) great opportunities to do their actual jobs?