Can Bill Gates be arrested over how people use Word?
Tom KirkmanIndependent Project Manager
So this means that Bill Gates can be personally arrested for anyone who uses Microsoft Word or LinkedIn messaging in ways that upset any government, right?
< scathing and dripping sarcasm to highlight government totalitarian abuses of censorship >
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“In his first public statements since his arrest by France on Aug. 24 at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov blasted French authorities for detaining and charging him, but also admitted that Telegram is not perfect that he’ll work to clean up instances of criminals abusing the platform.
He argued in a post to Telegram that it wildly departs from norms for a government to go after a CEO personally, as opposed to the “established practice” of bringing legal against the company.
“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” the billionaire tech entrepreneur wrote.
“Building technology is hard enough as it is,” he continued.
>>> “No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”
“We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance [between privacy and security],” Durov continued.
“Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue.”
… Durov has still maintained his stance that the formal charges against him are meritless. Others have argued that the case would be akin to prosecuting Google executives for any and all criminal or abusive communications or postings.
In many cases tech companies are left seeking to moderate potentially criminal and offensive content – but which is like seeking a needle in a haystack.
And all of this is raising questions of encrypted communications and the lengths European governments in particular might go to try stamp out its use among the citizenry …
There are reports saying that EU regulators will seek to enforce the strictest content moderation possible on Telegram.
This has raised the alarm over vital questions of free speech from other major social media platform owners, especially Elon Musk. …”