In the wake of Telegram owner and founder Pavel Durov’s shock arrest in Paris on Saturday, the French state is being hit by a growing wave of cyber-attacks designed to cause maximum embarrassment to beleaguered French president Emmanuel Macron. Durov was released from police custody in France on Wednesday and has been transferred to court for questioning ahead of a possible indictment that could result in a long prison sentence.
A post on X by SaxX, reportedly the nom de Twitter of cybersecurity consultant Clément Domingo, listed 10 websites in France that bore the brunt of the first wave of cyber-attacks orchestrated by a new online hacktivist group, #opDurov. The sites include those used by French citizens for access to health services and emergency helplines as well as the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in France. Although four of the sites went down immediately after the attacks, all are now up and running for the time being. But the hacktivists now intend to ramp up their attacks on France’s massive state-funded bureaucracy in their efforts to force France to free Durov.
Expect intensification of attacks
“In the coming hours and days, we should expect a probable intensification of these #ddos type computer attacks (i.e., denial of service attack – overloading the server of a website with computer requests),” says SaxX.
SaxX added that France may soon have more to fear than simple DDoS attacks: “I also fear other attacks more virulent/serious than these simple DDoS [attacks]! The disclosure of information and the defacement of the website (i.e., changing the home page’s message by a propaganda message) are also to be feared.”
Mounting online outrage at Durov’s summary arrest and detention in Paris has prompted growing online demands for the Russian-born tech billionaire’s release, which are now coming from around the world. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has publicly called on French President Emmanuel Macron to explain the circumstances surrounding Durov’s arrest, claiming that France is trying to suppress freedom of speech online by globally censoring views not approved by the European Union (EU). Vladislav Davankov, deputy speaker of the State Duma, a chamber of Russia’s Parliament, is pressuring France to release Durov on data privacy grounds.
“FreeDurov” campaign gathers momentum
A “FreeDurov” campaign is also rapidly gathering momentum with the backing of the feared Russian Cyber Army Team, a group that has previously attacked Ukraine’s nuclear agency. The group has already targeted the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) in France following Saturday’s arrest. Malaysian hacktivist group RipperSec has also this week been linked to a “FeeDurov” attack targeting French online financial services company Pricebank.
Officially, Durov has been detained as part of an ongoing crackdown on encrypted online services being used to distribute banned items such as illegal drugs and child pornography. But Durov’s supporters see something more sinister behind the tech billionaire’s sudden arrest. According to the Wall St Journal, French President Macron invited Durov to lunch in 2018 to try and persuade him to move Telegram to France, when it was reported Durov asked Macron for French citizenship, something he has subsequently been granted and may now regret, as it makes him subject to French law.
Durov did not, however, end up moving his company to France and in the six intervening years prior to Saturday’s arrest, Macron appears to have done a complete volte face regarding Telegram, which has over 950 million users worldwide. Durov may now be facing extremely serious charges of illegal drug trafficking and the distribution of child pornography, which could potentially carry long prison sentences.
Durov’s supporters believe that the real reason behind the arrest could be that Telegram’s group chat allows as many as 200,000 people to participate, whereas its rival WhatsApp, for example, allows a maximum of only 1,024. This effectively makes Telegram an online broadcast medium that is outside any form of state censorship or control.
Governments hellbent on censoring online media
In the wake of mounting terrorist attacks and civil unrest, governments such as the EU and the UK are currently hellbent on censoring and monitoring online publication of any views that are contrary to the official line on topics including immigration, COVID-19 vaccines, and net zero.
In the US, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns social networking platform Facebook, has also sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that claims “pressure” was applied by the Biden Administration to censor many Facebook posts concerning COVID-19, including those that were clearly humor or satire, and also to suppress reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop weeks before the 2020 election. Zuckerberg now swears that Meta will push back harder against state censorship in the future.
Should France decide to charge Durov with profiting from the illegal drug trading and the distribution of child pornography, the #freeDurov hacktivist campaign may soon be set to explode into a full-scale cyber-war between state censors and free-speech advocates worldwide.
