Elon Musk and Pavel Durov, two of the most powerful and wealthy entrepreneurs in the world of digital platforms, have bowed to regulators in separate legal proceedings that reveal a new dynamic in the balance of power between such platforms and government authorities.
In Brazil, on Wednesday, October 9, the Supreme Court lifted the suspension of the activities of Musk's social media network X (formerly known as Twitter) after forcing Musk to pay a fine of €5 million and block the accounts that the government accused of promoting disinformation. Musk relented after a dispute that lasted several months and led him to close his offices in Brazil in reaction to a judge's decision to ban several accounts accused of spreading disinformation, after X refused to do so itself. The Supreme Court then decided to block X entirely in Brazil.
In France, the messaging service Telegram has changed its tune and has now agreed to cooperate with the judicial authorities following the spectacular arrest of its Russian founder and CEO, Pavel Durov (who also has French nationality), on August 24. Charged with 12 offenses linked to Telegram's near-absence of cooperation with the law in cases involving fraud or the dissemination of child pornography images, Durov was placed under judicial supervision with a ban on leaving French territory, after posting bail of €5 million.
U-turns
Telegram has now responded to judicial requests and agreed to disclose to the courts the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who break the law, Durov confirmed on September 23. The app has also introduced advanced filtering of its internal search engine, blocking keywords leading to channels for the sale of weapons, drugs or illegal services, which were previously fully accessible. Belgian courts have also reported better cooperation from Telegram in recent weeks.
These U-turns show that, far from being a lawless zone, internet domains will comply with the rules as long as we are willing to give ourselves the means to enforce them, even if that means doing it the hard way – as French and Brazilian judges have lawfully done. It is not necessary to expect all of these means to come from major legislation in Brussels or Washington: the traditional judicial arsenal of individual states can also be put to good use.
This sequence of events also confirms that, behind their libertarian stance in favor of absolute freedom of expression, these global leaders of digital platforms are first and foremost business operatives, concerned with their own economic interests. They have no qualms about collaborating with regulators in authoritarian countries. In this respect, the choice of Dubai as Telegram's headquarters is revealing of the company's priorities.
Courted by heads of state and long protected by their investment and innovation power, these digital "strongmen" who are openly critical of Europe's regulatory approach, are finally being made to obey the law by ordinary judges in democratic countries. Perhaps we are seeing the start of a healthy and necessary rebalancing of power.