The last few days I’ve listened to any number of podcasts regarding the Durov affair, but if I’d listened to only one I’d have wanted it to be The 9pm Edict by @Stilgherrian alecmuffett.com/article/110369 #PavelDurov #telegram

Now the law professors are starting to ask the right questions…

Strong words condemning the UN’s new Cybercrime Convention. Identifying human rights threats in long, hard-to-read legal instrument is Joan Barata’s specialty. When he says there’s a problem, we should listen. techpolicy.press/new-united-nat…

I hope someday when I am 80+ somebody will sit me down in front of a retro CRT and point to somebody being wrong on (whatever has replaced) the internet.

The Rest Is Politics Rory Stewart ALASTAIR CAMPBELL Hi Rory Stewart! Semi-retired now but 2013-16 I worked Facebook engineering and I led the team which first added end-to-end encryption to Messenger. I heard that you find it hard to believe but Signal, WhatsApp & Messenger all use the same code. It's pukka message privacy.

The Rest Is Politics Rory Stewart ALASTAIR CAMPBELL Facebook Messenger The 3 services all differ re: how metadata (e.g. "who messages whom") is handled and whether safety benefits can be gleaned from that. And: the big issue of "should end-to-end encryption be allowed" is far more fundamental than discussed; it's more realistically summarised as:

Hey, does everybody remember the “monopolistic” & “anti-competitive” WhatsApp blocking of Telegram links in 2015? alecmuffett.com/article/110377 #censorship #facebook #telegram #whatsapp

Via The Economist, Rick Jones of the Britain’s National Crime Agency (National Crime Agency (NCA)) asks “Why does a 13-year-old need [end-to-end] encryption?” | …because everyone needs good security, Rick /HT @ShashJ alecmuffett.com/article/110378

Can we start referring to #RobertJenrick as #SideshowBob ? He clearly has some unaddressed issues with the European Convention on Human Rights #ECHR and is projecting a lot of personal fears onto it.

In case you missed it: the National Crime Agency thinks that we need to identify who is/is-not a child, and on that (and other?) basis decide whether they should be permitted to have online privacy.

A slightly more accurate take on this story is that Telegram will now hand over your private chat, rather than moderating it. Which makes perfect sense if they have the content and are bound by various laws.

Telegram will start moderating private chats after CEO’s arrest | …which they can only do because it’s not encrypted… | TheVerge alecmuffett.com/article/110394 #EndToEndEncryption #PavelDurov #censorship #privacy #telegram

Reminder: ChatControl is back from the dead. Again. The European Union want all the world’s messenger software to have state surveillance built into the code alecmuffett.com/article/110375 #ChatControl #EndToEndEncryption #EuropeanUnion #censorship #surveillance

It's so much fun watching pro-regulation people gradually working out the actual realpolitik of regulation, rather than the supposed intention and process of which they were supporters

The British state raised more revenue in 2023 from corporation tax paid by OnlyFans' parent company (£118m) than it did from North Sea oil royalties and license fees (£69m)

I look forward to the legislation that will ensure globally that no inaccurate information is published on social media, as the UK House of Commons speaker proposes here 😳 Maybe we could also reach the "traditional" media? 🤨) We could call it the King Lear Act 🌊