Telegram创始人在法国被捕，引发互联网言论自由之争
Telegram Becomes Free Speech Flashpoint After Founder’s Arrest
- 7 min read
纽约时报 News
ADAM SATARIANO, 孟建国, AURELIEN BREEDEN
Telegram, founded in 2013 by the Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, has grown into one of the world’s largest online communication tools and is central to everyday life in countries like Russia, Ukraine and India for messaging, getting independent news and exchanging views.
由俄罗斯企业家帕维尔·杜罗夫于2013年创立的Telegram现已发展成为世界上最大的在线通信工具之一，在俄罗斯、乌克兰和印度等国的日常生活中占据重要地位，人们用它发送信息、获取独立新闻和交流观点。
The company’s growth — it now has more than 900 million users — has been driven partly by a commitment to free speech. Telegram’s light oversight of what people say or do on the platform has helped people living under authoritarian governments communicate and organize. But it has also made the app a haven for disinformation, far-right extremism and other harmful content.
该公司目前拥有9亿多用户，其增长的部分动力来自于对言论自由的承诺。Telegram对平台上的言行监管较少，这有助于生活在威权政府统治下的人们进行交流和组织。但这也使该应用成为虚假信息、极右极端主义和其他有害内容的避风港。
Many were shocked when reports emerged on Saturday across French news media that Mr. Durov had been arrested in France on charges related to the spread of illicit material on the service. A French judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, confirmed on Sunday evening that Mr. Durov was in police custody. As word spread online over the weekend, news of his detention became a flashpoint in a continuing debate about free speech on the internet.
法国新闻媒体周六报道称，杜罗夫因涉嫌在该服务上传播非法材料而在法国被捕，许多人对此感到震惊。一位不愿透露姓名的法国司法官员周日晚间证实，杜罗夫已被警方拘留。周末，他被拘留的消息在网上传开，成为关于互联网言论自由的持续争论的热点。
Elon Musk, the owner of X, which has adopted a similarly hands-off approach to content moderation, posted “#FreePavel” on his X account. “It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” he also said.
X的所有者埃隆·马斯克在自己的X账户上发贴号召“#FreePavel”（#释放帕维尔）。他还说：“2030年，欧洲，你因为给一个米姆点赞而被处死。”在内容审核方面，X公司也采取了类似的放任方式。
Leonid Volkov, formerly a top adviser to Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in prison last year, wrote on Telegram that although the platform had become a useful tool for criminals, Mr. Durov should be released. “Durov is not an ‘accomplice’ to the crimes committed by Telegram users,” he said.
去年死于狱中的俄罗斯反对派领袖阿列克谢·纳瓦尔尼的前高级顾问列昂尼德·沃尔科夫在Telegram上写道，尽管该平台已成为犯罪分子的有用工具，但杜罗夫应该被释放。他说：“杜罗夫不是Telegram用户所犯罪行的‘帮凶’。”
The reaction over the news of the arrest showed how concerns about free expression, censorship and government oversight of online content are rising at a time when regulatory scrutiny of speech on the internet around the world has ramped up. National governments, especially those in the European Union, have intensified pressure on companies to address disinformation, online extremism, child safety and the spread of illicit material.
逮捕消息引起的反响表明，在全球对互联网言论的监管审查不断加强之际，人们对言论自由、审查制度和政府对网络内容的监督等问题的关注度正在不断上升。各国政府，尤其是欧盟各国政府，加大了对公司的压力，要求它们处理虚假信息、网络极端主义、儿童安全和非法材料传播等问题。
Telegram has long been on the radar of law enforcement agencies around the world because terrorist organizations, drug sellers, weapons dealers and far-right extremist groups have used it for communicating, recruiting and organizing.
Telegram长期以来一直受到世界各地执法机构的关注，因为恐怖组织、毒品贩子、武器交易商和极右极端组织都曾利用该平台进行通信、招募和组织活动。
Mr. Durov, 39, was arrested at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on a private plane from Azerbaijan, according to French news reports. The French judicial official said on Sunday evening that his time in custody had been extended. Under French law, the initial 24 hours spent in custody can be extended to up to 96 hours, depending on the seriousness of the criminal accusations.
据法国新闻报道，39岁的杜罗夫乘坐私人飞机从阿塞拜疆飞抵巴黎附近的布尔热机场后被捕。法国司法官员周日晚间表示，他的拘留时间已被延长。法国法律规定，根据刑事指控的严重程度，最初的24小时拘留时间可延长至96小时。
Representatives of the French police and Interior Ministry declined to comment.
法国警方和内政部的代表拒绝发表评论。
In a statement on Telegram on Sunday, the company said, “Telegram abides by EU laws,” adding, “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide.”
Telegram周日在一份声明中表示：“Telegram遵守欧盟法律，”并且“Telegram的首席执行官帕维尔·杜罗夫没有什么可隐瞒的”。
In an interview on Telegram, George Lobushkin, a former press secretary for Mr. Durov who remains close to him, wrote, “This is a monstrous attack on freedom of speech worldwide.”
杜罗夫的前新闻秘书、与他关系密切的乔治·洛布什金在Telegram上接受采访时写道：“这是对全世界言论自由的残暴攻击。”
The arrest of Mr. Durov risked intensifying tensions with Russia. The Russian Embassy in France said in a statement on Sunday that it had asked the French authorities for clarification on news of the arrest.
逮捕杜罗夫可能会加剧与俄罗斯的紧张关系。俄罗斯驻法国大使馆周日在声明中表示，已要求法国当局澄清有关逮捕的消息。
Vladislav Davankov, the deputy speaker of the State Duma, a chamber of Russia’s Parliament, called for Mr. Durov’s release. He said the arrest could be an effort to gain access to information held by Telegram and “cannot be allowed,” according to Meduza, an independent Russian news organization.
俄罗斯议会下院国家杜马副议长弗拉季斯拉夫·达万科夫呼吁释放杜罗夫。据俄罗斯独立新闻机构梅杜萨报道，他说，逮捕可能是为了获取Telegram掌握的信息，“这不能允许。”
Mr. Durov, whose net worth was estimated by Bloomberg at more than $9 billion, has largely avoided the kind of public scrutiny faced by top executives of other large online platforms, including Elon Musk of X, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Shou Chew of TikTok and Sundar Pichai of Google.
与其他大型在线平台的高管——如X的埃隆·马斯克、Meta的马克·扎克伯格、TikTok的周受资和谷歌的桑达尔·皮查伊——不同的是，净资产据彭博估计超过90亿美元的杜罗夫基本没有受到过公众的严密审视。
Mr. Durov’s arrest has little precedent. While the European Union and United States government have summoned and questioned leaders of other social media firms, rarely has a major tech leader been arrested over what takes place on such sites. In 2016, the Brazilian authorities arrested a senior Facebook executive after the company failed to turn over information from WhatsApp as part of a drug trafficking investigation.
像这样的逮捕几乎没有先例。欧盟和美国政府曾经传唤并询问过其他社交媒体公司的领导人，但很少有大型科技公司的领导人因为这些网站上发生的事情而被捕。2016年，巴西当局逮捕了Facebook的一名高管，原因是该公司在一项贩毒调查中没有交出WhatsApp上的信息。
Of particular interest after Mr. Durov’s reported detainment in France could be what information Telegram would decide to share, or withhold. The French authorities may try to force Telegram to share information with them on criminal channels that, for instance, are used to sell firearms or coordinate terrorist attacks. Such a move could test Telegram’s claim to its users that it strictly safeguards their information.
杜罗夫在法国被拘留的消息传出后，人们特别感兴趣的可能是，Telegram将决定分享或保守哪些信息。法国当局可能会试图迫使Telegram分享犯罪频道的信息，比如用于出售枪支或协调恐怖袭击的信息。此举可能会考验Telegram对其用户做出的严格保护用户信息的承诺。
A Russian national, Mr. Durov left Russia in 2014 after he lost control of Vkontakte, the rival to Facebook in Russia. The year before, he had founded Telegram, selling it as an uncensored and secretive way to communicate. The company is now based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mr. Durov has citizenship in France and the U.A.E., according to Telegram.
作为俄罗斯公民，杜罗夫在2014年失去对Facebook在俄罗斯的竞争对手Vkontakte的控制权后离开了俄罗斯。他在2013年创立了Telegram，并将其作为一种未经审查的秘密通信方式来宣传。据Telegram称，该公司目前总部设在阿拉伯联合酋长国的迪拜，杜罗夫拥有法国和阿联酋国籍。
Telegram works as a standard messaging app, like iMessage or WhatsApp, but also hosts channels and groups in which large numbers of people can broadcast ideas and communicate.
和iMessage或WhatsApp一样，Telegram是一款标准的即时通讯应用，但它也提供频道和群组，大量用户可以在其中传播观点，进行交流。
Telegram’s popularity is partly rooted in moves that it made to allow the hosting of huge chat groups of up to 200,000 people, at a time when other social media, like WhatsApp, were taking steps to cut back group sizes in efforts to combat disinformation. Other functions, like the sharing of large files, no limits on sharing links and bots that can interact with users within channels, have helped make it a powerful tool for social organization and coordination.
Telegram之所以受欢迎，部分原因在于它允许建立多达20万人的庞大聊天群，而当时WhatsApp等其他社交媒体正在采取措施缩减群组规模，以打击虚假信息。共享大文件、不限制共享链接，以及可以在频道内与用户互动的机器人等其他功能使Telegram成为社会组织和协调的强大工具。
Those capabilities, combined with the app’s minimal moderation, made it a haven for individuals and groups that were banned from other platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
这些功能，再加上应用程序极少的审核，令遭到Twitter和Facebook等其他平台禁止的个人和团体将它当做避风港。
Telegram makes money through in-app purchases, advertising, subscriptions and other promotions. In March, Mr. Durov told The Financial Times that Telegram was nearing profitability and considering an initial public offering.
Telegram通过应用内购买、广告、订阅和其他促销活动赚钱。今年3月，杜罗夫对《金融时报》表示，Telegram已接近盈利，正在考虑首次公开募股。
Reports of Mr. Durov’s arrest were immediately met with criticism by fans of the service as an example of governments trying to censor free speech on the internet. Mr. Durov has generally kept a low profile, not doing many media interviews. On his personal Telegram channel, he muses about various topics, including his ascetic lifestyle, the countries he travels to and, more recently, how as a sperm donor he now has more than 100 biological children. On Instagram, he occasionally posts photos of himself shirtless.
关于杜罗夫被捕的报道立即遭到该服务忠实拥护者的批评，他们认为这是政府试图审查互联网言论自由的一个例子。杜罗夫通常保持低调，不接受太多媒体采访。在他的个人Telegram频道上，他谈论各种话题，包括他简朴的生活方式，他去过的国家，以及他作为精子捐赠者如今已经有了100多个亲生子女。在Instagram上，他偶尔会发布自己不穿上衣的照片。
Although Mr. Durov portrays himself as a crusader for free speech, many security experts have said Telegram is not sufficiently encrypted. Disinformation analysts also say that, by taking a light touch with moderation, the app has become a major vector for the spread of terrorist propaganda and far-right extremism.
尽管杜罗夫把自己描绘成言论自由的斗士，但许多安全专家表示，Telegram是没有经过充分加密的。虚假信息分析人士还表示，这款应用在内容管理方面做得不够，已经成为恐怖主义宣传和极右翼极端主义传播的主要媒介。
Mr. Durov has linked the creation of Telegram to a run-in he had with Russia’s security services, who he said broke into his apartment in an effort to force him to take down opposition political material on Vkontakte. More recently, he abandoned plans to issue a cryptocurrency through Telegram after scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
杜罗夫称Telegram的创建与他和俄罗斯安全部门的一次冲突有关。他说，俄罗斯安全部门闯入他的公寓，试图迫使他删除Vkontakte上反对派人士的政治材料。最近，在受到美国证券交易委员会的审查后，他放弃了通过Telegram发行加密货币的计划。
After he left Russia in 2014, Mr. Durov said he traveled to Berlin, San Francisco, London, Singapore and other cities before making Dubai the headquarters for Telegram. Russia at one point tried to ban Telegram, but the company’s troubles appeared to ease after a top company executive appeared in 2020 on a tech panel with Russia’s prime minister.
杜罗夫说，2014年离开俄罗斯后，他去过柏林、旧金山、伦敦、新加坡和其他城市，然后把迪拜定为Telegram的总部。俄罗斯一度试图禁止Telegram，但在2020年，该公司的一位高管与俄罗斯总理一起出席了一个技术小组会议后，公司的麻烦似乎有所缓解。
Tucker Carlson, the far-right talk show host who interviewed Mr. Durov this year, said the reported arrest was “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies.”
今年采访过杜罗夫的极右翼脱口秀主持人塔克·卡尔森说，杜罗夫被捕的消息是“对任何拒绝在政府和情报机构要求下审查真相的平台所有者的一次活生生的警告”。
Adam Satariano是时报科技记者，常驻伦敦。 孟建国(Paul Mozur)是时报全球科技记者，常驻台北。此前，他自香港、上海和首尔报道亚洲科技与政治的交叉议题。 Aurelien Breeden是时报驻巴黎记者，报道法国新闻。 翻译：纽约时报中文网