Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested and ultimately charged with complicity in sharing sexually explicit images of children by failing to adequately moderate his platform, but free speech experts warn that it's faulty legal reasoning exploiting an emotional issue with unilateral support as a guise to advocate for censorship that has nothing to do with child abuse or crime and is instead focused on political dissent.
On a Fox and Friends appearance, George Washington University professor Jonathon Turley explained how authorities could take advantage of the situation to achieve a political end, and the implications it could have for American citizens.
Ainsley Earhardt asked, “So, the authorities say the app was being used for organized crime, drug trafficking, fraud, cyber bullying and promotion of terrorism. Despite all of that, you're still against his arrest. Why?”
Turley answered, “I am. People need to realize what's really going on here. We haven't seen anything akin to a charging sheet, but it appears that he's being arrested under these European laws that are designed to force social media companies to engage in censorship…And this is a global effort to control speech, and so — it's hard to be sympathetic with some Russian billionaire, right? That's not exactly somebody that you rally to the park to defend. But he's being charged with misconduct of others using his site. It's like arresting AT&T's CEO because the mob used a telephone to do its business.”
Turley continued.
“And the question for American citizens is whether we're going to allow these global censors to basically control speech from Europe. Free speech is in a free fall in Europe. It was no accident when Elon Musk bought Twitter, figures like Hillary Clinton almost immediately went to Europe and called on them to use the DSA. Consider that. To use the DSA to censor American citizens. That's a former presidential candidate calling for censorship through these officials.”
Turley went on to explain that law enforcement should target the individuals engaging in crime as opposed to governments enforcing censorship standards that could easily stray from crime prevention, and venture into partisan, politically motivated suppression.
“Well, you know, the important thing here is that we can arrest people for engaging in conduct. If you're using the telephone or you're using social media to engage in human trafficking or child pornography, of course you can be arrested. But what the complaint is against these social media companies is that they're not doing enough content moderation, and of course they emphasize things like child pornography. But you'll notice they're also talking about ‘extreme viewpoints…Well, who defines that? So there's a very dangerous slippery slope that comes from these laws, and American citizens should not be distracted from the implications of things like the DSA.”
The DSA refers to the European Union's Digital Services Act, described by the European Commission as designed to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation.
“This is an important fight, and Americans' rights are at stake here. Don't be distracted. This Russian billionaire might not be sympathetic to you, but they're using something that should scare you.”
The Daily Caller reports:
Durov's arrest was spearheaded by France's OFMIN, the agency tasked with protecting children from violence. Various governments — the U.S., U.K. and the European Union (E.U.) — have advanced legislation aimed at protecting children online. However, critics say these policies could be weaponized to chill freedom of speech and greenlight government censorship.
“Protecting children from serious harm is crucial, but governments too often try to achieve that goal through overly broad and vague regulations that open the door to unchecked censorship,” FIRE's Aaron Terr told the Caller.
This is one of the most important issues of our time, America needs to be aware of the very dark turn towards suppression of fundamental rights that Europe has taken. American leftists yearn for the same sort of oppression here- silencing those who disagree their insane woke policies!