Hello, hello. So, Telegram has been in the news. Essentially, the founder and CEO of Telegram has been arrested with numerous accusations. I don't want to delve into those specific accusations. Instead, I want to discuss technology, freedom, and moving forward.
To get us thinking about this, let me share a story about my experience teaching on a platform called Coursera. Coursera is a wonderful technology that allows people from all over the world to take classes for free. Just amazing. I taught a class there twice, each time with about 200,000 students. This encouraged me to move forward with experiments in social science, recording inside and outside, and trying various demos—lots of work.
However, every time I taught this class, of those 200,000 students, one person made it terrible. Once, an individual harassed female students online sexually. It was awful and ruined the collective learning atmosphere. I asked Coursera to block this person. They said they couldn't because it's open and anonymous—anyone can join. It was tough for the students and me.
Another time, a student thought every glitch in Coursera's system was an experiment I was conducting on them. He complained to my university, Duke, weekly, alleging unofficial experiments that weren't approved. Each complaint triggered an investigation. Here I was, volunteering my time for 200,000 people on top of my teaching load and research, and I had to deal with these baseless accusations weekly.
I contacted Coursera again and said I couldn't teach under these conditions. They reiterated that their rules were open to everyone. I argued that allowing one bad apple to ruin it for everyone wasn't right, but they stood by their rules.
Now back to Telegram—it's an amazing platform. I use it myself and admire its creativity and technology. But there are bad apples out there—maybe one in 200,000—doing illegal things like terrorism communication or worse.
What do we do as a society? We value freedom of speech and have specific ideas about it, but technology pushes us into new corners of humanity that require rethinking our principles through cost-benefit analysis.
Take painkillers: they are lifesaving but became too accessible at one point, leading to addiction crises like fentanyl overdoses. Similarly, information technology can enlighten but also be misused.
As technology evolves, we must reassess old principles with new cost-benefit analyses—recognizing it's a new world requiring new regulations. We need protection against bad actors who exploit these platforms.
I believe Coursera erred by not blocking bad apples from my course—a space where I should have the right to invite or uninvite participants. Similarly, Telegram’s creator should have the right and obligation to exclude harmful users from the platform.
People should earn the right to use such technologies but also face expulsion if they abuse them; otherwise, it endangers everyone. We need new regulations because bad actors gain disproportionate influence through technology.
I'd be very upset if Telegram disappeared or remained unchanged—it needs a balance that preserves its benefits while mitigating its harms. This applies to all platforms.
Here's hoping we find ways to balance freedom with good intentions while eliminating bad actors without creating overly strict rules—allowing us to communicate more positively and flexibly over time.
More to follow
Dan
