The change comes one month after Pavel Durov, the app’s founder and CEO, was arrested at Le Bourget airport near Paris. French authorities have charged the 39-year-old Russian-born entrepreneur with complicity in crimes facilitated through the platform. While Durov is not accused of direct involvement in any illicit activities, prosecutors allege that Telegram has enabled criminal acts by failing to sufficiently monitor and moderate its content. French officials also accuse Durov of refusing to supply information and documents crucial to their investigations of user-related crimes. On Sept. 23, Durov announced that Telegram had implemented measures to curb illegal activity on the platform. According to a Bloomberg report, Telegram will now share users’ IP addresses and phone numbers with authorities in response to valid legal requests. “These measures should discourage criminals,” Durov wrote. “Telegram Search is meant for finding friends and discovering news, not for promoting illegal goods. We won’t let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users.” The change “represents a marked difference from Telegram’s approach to government requests for data and its reputation for lax moderation,” Bloomberg adds, noting that in some jurisdictions Telegram has been “notoriously non-responsive to takedown requests from governments around the world, and often ignored requests for information about suspected criminals.” Previously, Telegram’s FAQ section stated, “All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.” Durov also revealed that the company has started using artificial intelligence (AI) and human moderators to remove problematic content from search results. Telegram now encourages users to report unsafe or illegal material for review. “All Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons that let you flag illegal content for our moderators — in just a few taps,” the platform now says in updated guidelines. “You can also use our automated takedown email address [email protected].”In a sharp policy reversal, the messaging app Telegram has announced it will begin providing identifying user information to law enforcement authorities.
