Telegram, the popular messaging app known for its staunch privacy stance and recently arrested CEO, has found itself in the center of a legal storm. Now, following the arrest of CEO Pavel Durov in France on August 25, the platform has quietly updated its FAQ page, signaling a shift in its approach to content moderation and allowing users to flag illegal content.
The legal troubles for Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, began when he was arrested at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in late August. The French authorities have accused Telegram of facilitating illegal activities, including drug trafficking, fraud, and the distribution of child pornography, without taking adequate measures to stop it. Durov was indicted on these charges, although he has staunchly denied the allegations, claiming that Telegram is not responsible for the criminal actions of its users.
Still, perhaps the most notable fallout from Durov’s arrest is the change in Telegram’s FAQ page regarding its moderation policies. Telegram had, at an earlier point, explicitly stated that “all Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants,” and that it did not process any requests related to these private conversations. Now, this has been removed from the FAQ, and for the first time ever, it has also introduced a new feature allowing users to report illegal content found in private chats through a “report” button. The button will be available for Telegram on Android, iOS, and the computer. in addition to this, they will also be able to send an email to their automated takedown email address with links that they believe need to be taken down by the moderators.
Durov’s arrest is part of a broader investigation into how technology platforms handle illegal content, and whether they can be held accountable for criminal behavior occurring on their platforms. In his defense, Durov has characterized the legal actions as “surprising,” and contends that using outdated laws to target platform CEOs is not a solution to the problem of online crime.
Speaking of Durov, he acknowledged that Telegram’s meteoric rise in user numbers, now approaching one billion, has contributed to growing challenges in maintaining control over illegal activities on the platform. In a statement released following his arrest, Durov highlighted the difficulty of policing such a large user base while maintaining the platform’s ethos of privacy and security. He admitted that Telegram’s rapid expansion had made it easier for criminals to exploit the platform, but assured users that Telegram is actively working to address these issues.
“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself. Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach. Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools,” Durov wrote in a statement on Telegram.
