The detention in France of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, has sparked a loud outcry about free speech. Elon Musk has portrayed the arrest on his X account as an ominous threat to free speech, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. referred to the app as an “encrypted, uncensored” platform and said “the need to protect free speech has never been more urgent.”

It’s a curious case, and the French government hasn’t helped matters by releasing information in dribs and drabs. While it is possible that there are free-speech issues entangled here, some early details suggest the issue may be one of criminal activity.

On Monday, the French prosecutor said in a statement that Durov — who is a citizen of France, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis and the United Arab Emirates — was being held for questioning in connection with an investigation into criminal activities on the app, including the trading of child sexual abuse material as well as drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering. Notably, Telegram explicitly boasts that it has never disclosed user data to any government, ever.

Questions have long swirled around Telegram. Contrary to widespread belief, Telegram is not encrypted in any meaningful sense. That would be “end to end” encryption, so that even the company couldn’t read users’ messages. Telegram — and anyone it chooses — can read all group chats, and there is no way to fully encrypt them. Those very large groups are the main attraction of the platform.

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Private chats on Telegram also lack end-to-end encryption by default. Here, though, users can undergo an onerous process to turn on end-to-end encryption, which then applies only to that conversation. Even the protection provided to private chats is murky: Cryptography experts have long questioned whether Telegram’s limited encryption actually meets security standards.

Durov was born in Russia, where Telegram is used widely. The Kremlin has Durov’s back: It issued a statement that unless more evidence is provided, Durov’s detention may be “a direct attempt to limit freedom of communication.” Russian anti-war activists have long wondered how the Kremlin seems to know so much about their activities on Telegram. (Good question.)

Free speech is an important value, but protecting it does not mean absolving anyone of responsibility for all criminal activity. Ironically, Telegram’s shortage of end-to-end encryption means the company is likely to be more liable simply because CAN see the criminal activity happening on its platform. If, for example, Telegram did not cooperate with authorities at all after receiving legal warrants for information about criminal activities, that would mean trouble even in the United States, with its sweeping free speech protections.

Zeynep Tufekci writes for the New York Times.

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Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, the 241st day of 2024. There are 125 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech before an estimated 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Also on this date:

In 1845, the first issue of “Scientific American” magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

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Today in History: August 27, Krakatoa erupts, causing tsunamis

Today in History: August 26, French general leads victory march through Paris

Today in History: August 25, National Park Service created

Today in History: August 24, Earhart becomes first woman accomplish flight feat

Today in History: August 23, the largest farm worker strike in U.S.

In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run began in Prince William County, Virginia, during the Civil War; the Union army retreated two days later after suffering 14,000 casualties.

In 1898, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina changed the name of the carbonated beverage he’d created five years earlier from “Brad’s Drink” to “Pepsi-Cola.”

In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman four days prior; he was found brutally slain three days later.

In 1957, U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) began what remains the longest speaking filibuster in Senate history (24 hours and 18 minutes) in an effort to stall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.

In 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian Air Force stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein (RAHM’-shtyn), West Germany.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation as Hurricane Katrina approached the city.

In 2013, a military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and left 30 people injured.

In 2016, six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation on the big island of Hawaii, where they emerged after living in a dome in near isolation on Mauna Loa.

Today’s Birthdays:

Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 84.
Actor Ken Jenkins (TV: “Scrubs”) is 84.
Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella (pih-NEHL’-uh) is 81.
Former MLB pitcher Ron Guidry (GIH’-dree) is 74.
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove is 72.
Artist Ai Weiwei is 67.
Actor Daniel Stern is 67.
Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 66.
Actor Jennifer Coolidge is 63.
Film director David Fincher is 62.
Country singer Shania (shah-NY’-uh) Twain is 59.
“Pokemon” creator Satoshi Tajiri is 59.
Actor Billy Boyd is 56.
Actor Jack Black is 55.
Hockey Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon is 55.
Actor Jason Priestley is 55.
Technology executive Sheryl Sandberg is 55.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 53.
Actor Carly Pope is 43.
Country singer Jake Owen is 43.
Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 42.
Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 38.
Actor Quvenzhane (kwuh-VEHN’-zhah-nay) Wallis is 21.

As Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sat down to address the media on Tuesday night, he took a light blue marker to the piece of paper on the podium that read “Stay humble,” and crossed out the last four letters of the second word.

He then wrote out a new word.

“Stay humble,” the paper now reads.

That’s the message Baldelli is hoping to impart to his team, which dropped its seventh of nine games on Tuesday night.

The Twins competed one four-run comeback in the game. Doing it twice was simply not in the cards. After rallying back to tie game in the eighth inning, the Twins fell behind by four runs again in the 10th and this time, their rally came up short. The Twins fell 8-6 in 10 innings at Target Field after the Atlanta Braves tagged Jhoan Duran for four runs.

“I’m a pitcher and sometimes you can have a day like that,” Duran, who retired just one of the six batters he faced, said. “It’s not like every day you throw good, you know?”

The loss was the Twins’ (72-60) third straight and was yet another tough defeat in a week and a half that seems to be full of them.

After a 10-6 loss to the Braves (72-60) a night before, Baldelli addressed his team. First baseman Carlos Santana, who made multiple highlight reel grabs in Tuesday’s game, took a simple message from it.

“Keep (focused),” Santana said of Baldelli’s speech. “One month left. Try to finish strong.”

The Twins have exactly 30 games remaining in their season. They are in position to win a Wild Card berth and are trying to chase down Cleveland and Kansas City, who now are tied atop the American League Central and are 2 1/2 games in front of the Twins.

“There’s a lot of high hopes for this club, a lot of lofty goals. But if we want to achieve those goals, we’ve got to play better baseball,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Yeah, we understand we’re relying on some young guys, we’re relying on young guys to give us really important roles. We’re depleted with injuries. There’s a lot of things you can point fingers at. But at the end of the day, we believe in this team and we know we’ve got to play better.”

They’re doing so without some of their top players — Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan are among those who are on the injured list — but they still firmly believe in the group of players they have on the field.

That group of players rallied back in the seventh inning for three runs after threatening to break through in each of the first six innings to cut into Atlanta’s four-run lead.

The Braves had scored two runs in the second on a Michael Harris II home run off starter Simeon Woods Richardson and another two in the fifth on a Marcell Ozuna single, but Trevor Larnach’s single in the eighth inning fully complete the comeback and wiped that lead away entirely.

They showed some fight two innings later after Duran gave up the four runs, stringing together three straight singles to produce a pair of runs before Matt Wallner struck out to end the game.

“We still have 30 games left to play,” Baldelli said. “There’s a lot of time do so some damage, so it’s time to do some damage.”

Atlanta Braves’ Michael Harris II hits a 2-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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