·Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram and known as the "Russia Zuckerberke", was arrested by France police at Paris' Le Bourget airport on August 24 and detained for 96 hours.
The news of the founder's arrest spread through Telegram in an instant
The Paris Public Prosecutor's Office said on the 26th:
"Durov's inadequate content moderation of the Telegram platform he founded led to the platform being exploited by criminals, and the investigation also involved multiple serious allegations, including conspiracy to trade illegally and possession and distribution of pornographic images of minors."
After his detention, Durov was formally charged by the court and is currently required to pay 5 million euros to be released on bail, but is required to report to the police twice a week and is prohibited from leaving France territory.
A press release issued by the Paris prosecutor La·ure Beccuau on August 28
Since leaving Russia in 2014, Durov has traveled to San Francisco, Berlin, London, the U.A.E. and other places to see how secure he is with Telegram.
What's more, Durov, who is cunning in the three caves, has always had the nationality of Russia, France, U.A.E. and other countries, but he did not expect to be arrested this time coldly.
"Durov never puts his eggs in one basket"
As soon as the news came out, there was a global uproar, some people supported it, and some people ridiculed. The multi-faceted wrestling has also begun.
First of all, France President Macron, seeing that things are getting bigger and bigger, Musk and Snowden and others also came out to protest, personally explaining that "arresting Durov is by no means a political decision".
In addition to the U.A.E. Foreign Ministry, which expressed great concern, even the Russia embassy came out to rob people (even if he left Russia, Durov did not withdraw his Russian citizenship):
"As soon as the news of Durov's arrest broke, we asked the France authorities to explain the reasons for his arrest, to protect Durov's rights and to provide him with consular visitation."
The current backstab, the predecessor is in a hurry, and the world eats melons, this big drama is really getting more and more interesting.
See you for a long time
Even our official media has rarely reported on this incident and the "Telegram" behind it, what kind of magic does this small paper airplane have?
01: Dark Web? Clearnet!
The DeepWeb, which was a decade ago, was a terrible form of cybermagic, has now been gradually forgotten, as if it were only a thin concept.
In just ten years, Heqing Haiyan, the world is peaceful, and no one has done anything bad?
Of course not. It's because Telegram is so "easy to use" that it squeezes out the dark web market.
Illustrate the classic old picture of the dark web
In the early days, if you want to enter the dark web, you need a high technical threshold.
It's not enough to use Tor Browser for anonymous access.
You also need to use a special way to get a random code to enter successfully.
In the later stage, with the increase in access demand, more and more dark web content can be directly accessed through the onion browser.
But even so, the dark web still has problems such as unstable connections, slow speeds, and too complicated operations.
Tor（The Onion Router），多重加密技术就像一层层的洋葱，故得此名
But the emergence of Telegram has solved many of the pain points of the dark web.
The UI design is simple, easy to operate, fast, and most importantly, extremely confidential.
Telegram使用端对端加密,甚至把自家最核心的MTProto(Mobile Transport Protocol)安全通信协议给开源放在了网上,迄今都还没人能突破该加密协议。
The protocol has been iterated to 2.0, and has been further upgraded in terms of key exchange, encrypted transmission, anti-tampering, and transmission efficiency
Moreover, now that we have entered the era of mobile Internet, users are pursuing freedom and flexibility in operation and a large amount of experience.
Telegram's spreadability and timeliness, as well as its censorship-defying nature.
Whether it's psychopathic or pure curiosity, it's very attractive to users, especially when compared to the violence or nudity footage on things like X and Instagram, where there are twists and warnings, which makes the "telegram" more violent.
In many telegram groups, there are images of the front-line wars in Russia, Ukraine and Gaza, as well as various execution images of South American drug lords, and even a global large-scale video summary similar to "The Most Disturbing Man in the World", showing the world's most creepy and physically uncomfortable pictures to the group friends.
If you accidentally enter it, it is estimated that it will leave a psychological shadow.
There are even groups that specialize in claiming corpses from the front
The biggest difference from similar apps is the maximum number of people in groups, which is up to 200,000 people, compared to 1,024 on WhatsApp.
If you want a group to accommodate an unlimited number of members, it can also be upgraded to a "channel", and a single notification can be directly broadcast to hundreds of thousands of members, and the vertical propagation efficiency is amazing.
Today, the number of Telegram channels has exceeded 850,000, not to mention the groups that are always appearing and are growing all the time.
In addition to violence, there is also pornography.
In some of Telegram's pornographic channels, compared to the paid OnlyFans and P stations, the electronic Robinhood on Telegram continues the "open source spirit", allowing massive resources to be transmitted to the world through thousands of groups and channels.
A local group in Malaysia was found to be filming and sharing a large number of child pornography videos
In addition to sharing paid resources, there are more illegal shooting content.
Voyeurism, pedophilia, and even rape – Telegram's anonymity allows people to create an abyss in the cyber realm.
Violence, pornography, blood, filth, and other negative elements that are difficult to access in the bright society have gradually spread through countless decentralized telegram groups.
Like a black water with a virus, which eventually ruled most of Telegram, you have to work harder to find some serious and legal content on Telegram.
Arrogance, jealousy, anger, laziness, greed, gluttony, lust...
Our old impression of dark web forums may also be full of content such as drug dealing, human trafficking, killer hiring, death streams, and more.
For example, the largest dark web market at that time, the "Silk Road", involved all kinds of illegal trading of drugs, guns and other illegal content, and was eventually eliminated by the police of various countries.
After Ross Ulbricht, the administrator of the "Silk Road", was taken down by the FBI, Silk Road 2.0 and even 3.0 soon appeared, but they were eventually confiscated by the police.
The most famous fake killer dark web advertisement, which seems to make a lot of money for the killer, is actually a phishing website
On the one hand, it is easy for the police to engage in "serious" forums, and on the other hand, everyone's myths about the dark web have gradually dissipated.
Most of the dark web myths that have been circulating for many years have been confirmed to be fabricated, and most of the hired murderers, death livestreams, and organ trafficking on them are direct hook fishing, pure fraud money, and the scam links in today's Telegram groups are as proliferated.
But in today's Telegram, illegal groups are born again and again because of their convenience and cannot be eradicated.
Therefore, whether it is the "onion browser", which is known as the key to open the dark world, or the dark web itself, it is gradually replaced by the "clear net" of Telegram.
However, it should be reminded that Telegram is not the default global domain of non-private secrecy, but needs to turn on the end-to-end "secret chat" function, which involves message encryption, key management, message decryption, and the chat object needs to be online at the same time.
A special interface for the "Secret Chat" feature
Only under such conditions does Telegram's servers not store any chat data, and the messaging service operators see only encrypted data.
However, group chats with more than two people and channels with more than 10,000 people will only use server-side encryption, that is, encryption on transmission, and if outsiders break into the server, they can still crack and view, so the risk will be higher than that of fully encrypted end-to-end.
For most people, the transmission encryption of ordinary group chats is enough, and if you really want to do some illegal transactions, it is not too late to turn on the secret chat function, so compared to the past, it is much more difficult to crack down on illegal activities on Telegram, whether it is criminal positioning or undercover fishing.
Telegram groups and channels are encrypted in transmission, and data is stored on the company's servers
Today, the number of Telegram users worldwide has exceeded 950 million in July this year, and even without a perfect business model, its valuation has reached $30 billion.
02: Shadows in the sun
There is nothing new under the sun, and the shadows are full of the Garden of Loss.
Just like OnlyFans, which was originally established to share life knowledge, has now become a paid pacesetter for adult content.
Telegram, imbued with liberal genes, not only brings protection to messages, but also hands the black world a parasol to hide the shadows from the daylight.
This is not a simple "color problem", under the dense encrypted data network of Telegram, there are many anti-human and anti-social extreme content.
Internet cults, neo-Nazis, violent and bloody, child pornography, clandestine photography, black market trading, drugs and guns, animal abuse, information sales, hacker employment and other unheard of black content exist openly in many groups and channels.
If the traditional dark web is a low-key underground market, then these dark groups in Telegram have opened their stalls directly into the hypermarket, which can be seen by people coming and going, making it more convenient to find the same kind.
In 2015, ISIS propagandized, taught, and posted various terrorist videos in Telegram groups.
Later, ISIS launched multiple rounds of terrorist attacks in Paris and other places, and Telegram urgently shut down relevant groups under the pressure of public opinion, but the jihadists have already set up camp, how can they easily move?
The Nashir News Agency has become a cat-and-mouse game for ISIS cyber warriors and Telegram's official network, generating mirror links and calling on supporters around the world to retweet them.
As "Telegram" became the communication software of many far-right organizations in Europe and around the world, the name of Terrorgram (Terror+Telegram) gradually spread, from online hatred to offline execution, and terrorism quickly fissioned in these groups.
Terrorgram = Terrorism + Telegram
Members range from Europe to United States, and even Mongolia, Australia, and New Zealand, whether they support white supremacy, Satan, or neo-Nazis, antisocial people from all over the world join forces here to warm up and exchange experiences.
Especially after 2019, Facebook and YouTube began to purge on a large scale and severely banned far-right content, and more scattered extremists began to pour into this "three regardless" Telegram.
This is not retro vaporwave music, but "Terrorwave" – "Terrorist Wave"
Collectively known as the Terrogram Collective, members exchange ideas on how to make bombs, pick and assemble guns, share hell jokes, and even create their own design aesthetic, "Terrorwave."
Skeletons, death, fire, and symbols are the core elements of Terrorwave
Worshipping extremist ideology and the aesthetics of terrorism, these members have carried out terrorist attacks on a number of occasions, often by posting a manifesto in a group and then live-streaming the massacre, mass shootings and bombings are their favorite methods of terrorist attacks.
The more blood you have on your hands, the more Saint you are
For them, suicide by swallowing a gun after the massacre is the final step to becoming a "saint", and the rest of the group will carry these people into the "Valhalla" to become gods, and will worship in countless groups until a new round of worship and imitation is formed.
Whether it is the 2011 Uute massacre in Norway, the 2019 El Paso shooting in the United States, or the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, the main culprits behind it are all revered as saints by members of Terrorgram.
Brenton · Tarrant killed 51 people in the mosque shooting, which was webcast live
It is no wonder that in March this year, the United Kingdom government officially announced the designation of all Terrorgram groups as "terrorist organizations", as long as they involve joining, participating in, and promoting related groups, they will be hit hard.
The Most Righteous Episode
In addition to extremists, ordinary people will still show the evil of human nature in the crypto world, whether it is Ross · Ulbrich, who built the dark web Silk Road under the guise of entrepreneurship after graduation, or Zhao Zhoubin (조주빈), the "doctor" who created room N on Telegram.
"No Man Can Be Seen" (Dark Version)
In life, they are harmless images of humans and animals, but in the dark web and telegram without moral constraints, their dark side is infinitely magnified along the network.
The "Room N Incident" that shocked the world, with just a telegram group and cryptocurrency, completed the closed loop of crime.
The defense lawyer couldn't stand it anymore and chose to give up the defense
Zhao Zhoubin, who is a "doctor", posted a high-paying part-time job on social platforms to attract victimized women, and then further tricked victims into providing personal information, nude photos, and even indecent videos on the grounds of "contacting the financier" and "Telegram will not save photos".
After obtaining the materials here, they were put into a series of telegram groups with 20-250,000 won, 700,000 won, and 1.5 million won as membership thresholds (hence the name Room N), and the membership fee was paid regularly through cryptocurrency.
Many of the victims were minors
Zhao Zhoubin used Telegram to hide his identity, but for both members and victims, he insisted on taking his privacy into his hands and eating both.
Not only did he require members to take pictures of their faces and ID cards, and threaten to disclose their identities if they defaulted on membership fees, but he also hired two groups of staff, one dedicated to intimidating victims into filming sexually exploitative videos, and the other to verify the victims' real identities.
The method is similar to the "naked loans" that were rampant in universities in the past
Room N has a total of 104,000 members, the largest of which has 23,500 members, and the doctor has profited so much from it that 130 million won in cash was found in his home when he was arrested, not to mention a large amount of virtual currency that has not yet been cashed out online.
It's no wonder why the "doctor" dared to call himself "a shining star of Telegram" in the first place, but now it seems that it is not a good feeling, but a long list.
While all of the main culprits in Room N have been sentenced to decades-long sentences, digital sex crimes on Telegram are far from over.
After four years, the vicious incident of a deepfake face-swapping indecent video that recently detonated public opinion in Korea can be called "Room N 2.0".
Whether it is a popular K-pop actress or an ordinary schoolgirl, they are all involved
Male users provide photos of women and pay for them, and Telegram channel operators use deepfakes to make them sexually explicit images, or directly switch their faces to pornographic films.
At the time of the exposure, the Telegram channel had more than 220,000 members, completely surpassing the group days of "Room N".
There's even an outrageous option to "resize your chest" in it
To say how exaggerated this data is, Korea had a national birth population of 230,000 last year, and there were 260,000 taxis in the whole of Korea, so it can be said that the probability of having members of the channel around is similar to the probability of getting a taxi in Korea.
The most vicious point of this incident is that the main victim group is female students, from primary school to university, affecting more than 200 schools, the youngest victim is only 11 years old, and some people have marked the distribution of victims' schools, which is almost the terrible degree of red on the whole map.
"The whole army south of the 38th parallel was annihilated"
According to arrest data from the Korea National Police Agency last year, 75.8% of deepfake pornography face-swapping offenders are also minors, and some even put photos of their female relatives in order to join the channel to show their loyalty.
If the antagonism between men and women in Korea society is deep-rooted, then Telegram provides an excellent tool and cover for the perpetrators, after all, Korea, which has experienced the pain of room N, has not learned the pain, but now it has intensified, and the number of participants has doubled.
So much so that many Korea women spoke out on domestic Weibo, wanting to attract the attention of public opinion
Of course, in addition to the above bloody and dark vicious incidents, there are also many abstract transactions in Telegram that wander in the gray area.
Even in 2021, there was a rush to buy fake vaccine certificates, and customers were mainly concentrated in European countries, who would rather spend hundreds of euros on Telegram to buy fake certificates than get vaccinated.
More than 400,000 people are the largest number of telegraph channels selling fake vaccine certificates
To put it more abstractly, Telegram can buy and sell drugs and guns, as well as various shopping cards and coupons, and spend money to "swipe rockets".
In addition to fighting and killing, you also have to get by
Different from the rockets rewarded by Douyin live broadcast, during the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Telegram can not only directly hit the front-line battle situation, but also brush real rockets in the group.
In order to raise some military expenses in a different way, this service was originally provided by Ukrainian personnel, and the text and patterns were customized on 152mm caliber shells, with prices ranging from 40$ to 100$, and if you want to record the launch screen and hit screen, you have to spend 300$ for the full set.
There is also a discount for two shots at a time
Under the spread of Telegram groups and major media, netizens around the world are frantically placing orders, some United States netizens write birthday wishes, Japan netizens write Beidou God Fist lines, and Germany netizens wish Happy Father's Day, but the Ukrainian army said that the shells in their hands are not enough to fight.
With the help of such a good business, the relevant telegram group immediately launched a tank customization service worth 2000$, and customers can sign their names or what they want to say on the T64-BV tanks of the Ukrainian army.
If the small rocket is not enjoyable, then you can try to change the shotgun for the cannon for an extra 500$, and customize a 9M317 guided rocket weighing 715kg, which is much more ruthless than buying a pistol on the dark web before.
More cost-effective than custom tanks
Excluding these "seasonal" Telegram transactions, the Telegram group has long been filled with psoriasis-like scam links, aircoin advertisements and various phishing bots that fool people into investing, which is simply cyber northern Myanmar.
The phishing bot called "Telekopye" is very versatile
Just as Kaspersky revealed the phishing chaos in Telegram in 2023, today's phishers are no longer satisfied with cheap phishing kits that are public, but use phishing bots that spread to various groups to collect sensitive information in batches with advertising disguises, and finally carry out information sales and serial scams.
Under the multi-layered hood of web pages, emails, text messages, and even direct messages, it's easy to get hooked
Malicious phishing bots like Telekopye can even autonomously generate matching fraudulent web pages, emails, and SMS messages to efficiently assist large-scale fraud campaigns.
Both the efficiency and scope of fraud are much more harmful than traditional electronic fraud.
"The Wisdom of the Past"
is not only bizarre, but also full of evil, the water of the normal Internet does not know the depth, not to mention this Telegram, we can't grasp it, smash!
03: Double-sided and double-edged
The genius to the left, the madman to the right, standing in the middle, taking care of both, that is the life of a born whole work.
The man behind Telegram, Pavel · Durov, is exactly such a person.
Just looking at the hairstyles of the early years, the Durov brothers have already won too much
In his early years, Durov, like his older brother, was a programming genius full of Geek spirit, although his younger brother also had a "strong man's hairstyle", but his brother, who won multiple gold medals in the Mathematical Olympiad, was still slightly better in programming and mathematics.
The brothers co-founded the Russian version of Facebook VKontakte in 2006, which soon became a net worth of hundreds of millions, but gradually became a thorn in the side of the Russian government.
In "freedom", I went through the Chinese and Western schools, and belonged to yes
Because compared to his older brother, who was the technical director, Durov gradually stripped himself from his status as a technical genius, began to practice his liberal will in political and economic terms, and even published the manifesto of anarcho-capitalism.
At this point, a two-sided life begins.
Putin: Heng Mei coldly pointed at Rove
From refusing to write off the anti-government voices on the VK platform and hardening the Russian government, to publicly giving Putin the middle finger and leaving Russia.
After all, if you want to fully implement ultra-liberalism, you will be extremely uncooperative with various investigations and shutdowns, and only after a large-scale terrorist attack like ISIS caused by Telegram reluctantly shut down seven groups.
Therefore, Durov's style gradually angered the regulators of many countries and made enemies everywhere.
"Sudden change in painting style"
While becoming the focus of the world, his image has also ushered in a big change, hair transplantation, fitness, and beard growth have not fallen, and Lei Jun, who has exploded, is not as good as him.
Judging from his current social media style, I don't know that I thought I had strayed into the OnlyFans page of a male Internet celebrity, and almost thought that he would yearn for "exquisite eternal life" like Brian.
续命到走火入魔的Bryan Johnson
And that's not all, on July 30 of this year, Durov proudly announced on his Telegram channel:
"I was just told that I already have more than 100 biology children."
"How is this possible for a man who has never been married and loves celibacy?"
On the issue of scattering seeds and worrying about the global fertility rate, Durov and Musk are almost in love, and their talent for living is not inferior to the old horse.
Not to mention the importance of biology children, he has become more and more radical in the construction of Telegram, from not pursuing profits at the beginning, to issuing his own cryptocurrency Toncoin, as well as increasing Premium members and advertising, and even planning to go public for IPO.
Self-hematopoiesis is the only way to perpetuate the dream of liberalism
A multi-pronged approach to harden all countries that want to make Telegram bow its head, completely detached from the stereotypical image of nerdy programmers.
Just like the arrested double-faced Durov, as a double-edged sword, Telegram is a sharp and easy sword, so there will be no shutdown in the short term.
After all, all the major war zones are using it at the moment, but they don't want it, and their bodies are very honest.
Both the military and civilians of Russia and Ukraine are using, the first wartime communication software
Russia newspapers are worried about the aftermath of Durov's arrest, with The Independent saying: "The attack on Telegram is a threat to attack Russia, and after Durov's arrest, Western intelligence agencies can obtain the keys to this communication app." ”
The Moscow Komsomolskaya newspaper said: "Telegram chats are filled with a lot of important strategic information, which will become a tool of NATO." ”
When Telegram was officially banned by Russian authorities in 2018, many people took to the streets to protest with paper airplanes
Interestingly, Russia authorities blocked the app in April 2018, but it was lifted in 2020.
Today, it is used not only by Russia officials, but also by officers and soldiers of the Russian army and even on the battlefield of the "special military operation".
The Russian media, as well as the military, are worried: "If Telegram falls, how will the army fight?" ”
Under this layer of encryption protection, it is a mask for everyone in the world, afraid that others will have bad intentions when they wear masks, but they also enjoy the benefits of wearing masks, which is completely black.
To each his own thing
So this is why Russia, the "predecessor" who had formed a beam before, was in a hurry to catch people, which is more abstract than the domestic plot of dog blood.
Because in addition to Russia all walks of life are using it, politicians in United States and other countries are loyal users, and even Macron has publicly admitted to using the telegraph, and also wants to invite Durov to open the headquarters to France, after all, they have more things that they can't see, and naturally favor end-to-end.
Idealized ultra-liberalism, as well as Western-style democracy, have so far been a matter of political wrestling.
Xiaozha revealed that the Biden administration pressured Meta to control public opinion, which can be regarded as a vote
Zucker Burke, who United States in the past, was recently afraid that Trump would take office again to engage in liquidation, and he opposed the Water Democratic Party, and pulled a group of Silicon Valley tycoons to switch to the Republican Party.
Everyone has a dark side, which is actually the core meaning of Telegram's existence so far, not the great liberalism, so no matter what Durov's fate is this time,
It would be a great mockery of his liberal dreams.
Resources
1、Terrorists’ love for Telegram, explained. Vox. 2017
2、Terrorgram collective now proscribed as terrorist organisation. GOV.UK. 2024
3、Anyone Can Be a Victim: Sprawling AI Fake Nudes Crisis Hits South Korea. WSJ. 2024
4、Telegram CEO Charged in France for Crimes Committed on His App. Bloomberg. 2024
5、Terrorgram: A community built on hate. DFRLab. 2020
6、Inside ‘Terrorgram’, the secretive hate group where deadly attacks are planned. Metro. 2024
7、Telekopye: Hunting Mammoths using Telegram bot. Welivesecurity. 2023
8、Cybercriminals Using Telekopye Telegram Bot to Craft Phishing Scams on a Grand Scale. 2023