Telegram, a messaging service, has said that it will provide authorities with search warrants or other legitimate legal requests along with user phone numbers and IP addresses. CEO Pavel Durov stated in a Telegram post on Monday that the company’s terms of service and privacy policy have been changed, which “should discourage criminals”.
“While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk,” he continued. For Mr. Durov, the co-founder of the platform who was born in Russia and was arrested by French police last month at an airport north of Paris, the announcement represents a dramatic about face.
Prosecutors there accused him of encouraging illegal conduct on the site a few days later. He is accused of participating in the trafficking of drugs and the dissemination of photos depicting child abuse. He was accused of disobeying law enforcement as well.
Shortly after his detention, Mr. Durov, who has refuted the accusations, blasted the authorities, calling their actions “surprising” and “misguided” for holding him accountable for crimes committed by third parties on the platform.
Critics claim that Telegram’s ability to have groups with up to 200,000 members is one of the reasons it has turned into a hub for false information, child pornography, and content tied to terrorism.
In comparison, WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, caps group sizes at 1,000.
Last month, Telegram came under fire for carrying far-right channels that fueled violence in English cities. To lessen the threats posed by Russia, Ukraine blocked the app earlier this week on devices that were provided by the government.
The future of online free speech rights has come under scrutiny following the 39-year-old chief executive’s detention. Many started to doubt if Telegram was a safe space for political dissidents after Mr. Durov’s arrest, according to John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
He continued, saying that Telegram has not made it clear how the business will respond to future demands from the heads of these countries. While certain groups have been removed from Telegram in the past, cybersecurity experts claim that compared to rival social media firms and messenger apps, Telegram’s system for filtering extremist and illegal information is significantly weaker.
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According to 404 Media, Telegram would only provide information on terror suspects prior to the most recent policy expansion. On Monday, Mr. Durov announced that the app was now using “a dedicated team of moderators” to hide objectionable content from search results by utilizing artificial intelligence.
