The news that Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested at the airport in Paris is huge, with potentially massive consequences for EU digital policy. So far, Telegram is the outlier among messaging apps - a lawless place, where scams and drug trade happen with near impunity. 🧵

Yes. I wish people would stop speculating about encryption. It’s highly unlikely this is about encryption

I’ve started spending more time there than here again, and it’s been lovely

Tech law scholars interested in #cybersecurity law and policy: the Fourth Annual Cybersecurity Law and Policy Scholars Conference call for papers has now been posted! Deadline: December 15 (conference April 4-5 2025). clpsc.org

Amid all the speculation and pundits finding ways to make this news fit their pet issues, here is an actual expert’s view of the charges…

This trick is probably time-limited, as I imagine the hallucinated citations will start to be plagiarized in due course. But it works for now!

Brilliant ad.

I'm trying something new! I'm starting a blog on Issues in Cybercrime Law because I need a good way to procrastinate on writing my book. Hope it may also be useful to people! First post coming soon. issuesincybercrimelaw.substack.com/p/welcome?r=16…

Just in case you missed it, since X only showed my post to a whopping 22 people...

First blog post is up! "What's New in the UN Cybercrime Convention". I briefly outline the two new substantive cybercrime offences included in the convention and make a couple observations about what's new and actually not-so-new. open.substack.com/pub/issuesincy…

First time for everything: I just found hallucinated citations in a student essay which are plagarised from an academic article. (I've emailed the journal)

I am now the book reviews editor for the International Journal of Law and Information Technology. If you have a book you would like to review, please get in touch!

Everyone on the encryption and CALEA beat has been flagging this risk forever. Sometimes it really sucks being right.

My latest article 'A European right to end-to-end encryption?' is now available open access with the Computer Law and Security Review. It considers the recent ECtHR judgment in Podchasov v Russia and implications for the OSA & EU 'chat control' regulation tinyurl.com/e2enote

New post! Belated Thoughts on the Arrest of Pavel Durov (in other words, thoughts on platform cooperation with cybercrime and digital investigations and executive liability for crimes committed on platforms) open.substack.com/pub/issuesincy…

Reposting for the morning crew in Europe. New blogpost!

I have tried several times in the past week to track my Tennessee absentee ballot and the website won't load. Tre Hargett

The “come to the NCA and you’ll change your mind” is so patronising. I prosecuted CSAM cases and it was horrific. It doesn’t change my mind any more than it did the FBI’s when they started promoting e2ee after the salt typhoon hack