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Spain hits back at Pavel Durov over mass Telegram post on social media ban plan (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Luniio@lemmy.world to c/europe@feddit.org
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[–] c_dach_einheimischer@feddit.org 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

I accept the concerns about age verification, I personally share them myself. But please do not say that Durov is right.

Just some excerpts from his message (i leave out number one, which is about the age verification)

Personal and criminal liability for platform executives: If “illegal, hateful, or harmful” content isn’t removed fast enough, bosses face jail.

⚠️ Danger: This will force over-censorship—platforms will delete anything remotely controversial to avoid risks, silencing political dissent, journalism, and everyday opinions. Your voice could be next if it challenges the status quo.

Telegram is used by organized crime, sex criminals, terrorists and by intelligence to recruit throw-away agents to execute attacks on european infrastructure. If you as a private person provide any resources to anyone doing this, you go to jail. Why do all the tech oligarchs like Durov don't go to jail? Telegram is not end-to-end-encrypted by default and all the messages are plain-text readable for Telegram, they have all the means to prevent this, but they decide they won't. This makes them, and Pavel Durov personally, complicit in these crimes.

Criminalizing algorithm amplification: Amplifying “harmful” content via algorithms becomes a crime.

⚠️ Danger: Governments will dictate what you see, burying opposing views and creating echo chambers controlled by the state. Free exploration of ideas? Gone—replaced by curated propaganda.

In contrast to the corporate propaganda which the platforms promote now. Currently the tech oligarchs promote what people see on those platforms.

  1. “Hate and polarization footprint” tracking: Platforms must monitor and report how they “fuel division.”

⚠️ Danger: Vague definitions of “hate” could label criticism of the government as divisive, leading to shutdowns or fines. This can be a tool for suppressing opposition.

Again: Currently Pavel Durov, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai define what is hate, how is this any better than the government doing it, which is elected in most of Europe, in contrast to the Oligarchs which have no legitimacy.

I am in no way saying that government propaganda is good, but Durov is plain dishonest in his message. He has like one debatable point, the rest is oligarch and corporate propaganda.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 15 hours ago

You make good points, I mean he is right in that there is a concerted worldwide effort to lock down the internet, and filter it through new ai tools, threat detection, anticipatory, half baked though it is that is what this is about.

We should not surrender to the government, what they are doing is far worse, and more expansive, than you are led to believe.

Right now, the government is the enemy, durov being a strange bedfellow perhaps.