- Telegram will now comply with legal requests and share information about users suspected of being involved in criminal activities.
- Along with updating its approach, the company has also started removing content that goes against its policies and blocking people who share such content.
- The announcement was made by CEO Pavel Durov himself who was recently arrested in France for being complicit in the spread of child pornography (and other crimes) on the platform.
In an interesting turn of events, Telegram has updated its Terms of Service and has decided to share users’ IP addresses and phone numbers with authorities.
The decision was announced by CEO Pavel Durov who was recently arrested in France for allowing criminals to freely communicate over Telegram without any restriction.
‘We’ve made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules can be disclosed to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests’ – Pavel Durov
Explaining further, he said that if the company receives a complaint from the authorities that a certain user is a suspect in criminal activities that violate the Telegram Terms of Service, it will review the information sent by the authorities and may decide to share the user’s IP address and phone number with them.
This data will also be included in its periodic transparency report. In order to be able to supply such data, the platform will now start collecting information such as IP address, user activity, history of username change, etc.
Telegram’s Previous Policy
Under Telegram’s previous policy, user data was only shared with the authorities if they received a confirmation from the court that a certain user was a terror suspect. Naturally, this made its practices quite controversial.
In order to create a free platform for users where they could communicate without the authorities watching them like a hawk, Durov (unknowingly) encouraged criminal activity.
- Telegram became a safe haven for criminals who no longer had to worry about their chats or IP addresses being leaked. This meant they couldn’t continue their shady business in private.
- And since Telegram hardly had any content moderation rules and rarely took down content, a number of illegal channels popped up on the platform that spread child abuse material.
- That’s not all, its so-called privacy features have also helped organized crimes involving money laundering, drug trafficking, and even physical violence against minorities.
But everything changed after Durov’s arrest. Along with deciding to cooperate with the authorities, Durov and his team also decided to clean up the platform.
This includes:
- Blocking people who violate the platform’s policies
- Removing searchable content if that includes talks of illegal stuff
- Urging other users to report any illegal activities that they might come across on the platform
About the Arrest
On July 8, French authorities opened an investigation into Telegram for allegedly allowing criminal activities to flourish on its platform. Following this accusation, on August 24, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant against Pavel Durov.
Russia (Since Durov is Russia-born) claimed that this was a political move and that France should release evidence for all the derogatory claims it made against Durov.
But France cleared the air and said this has nothing to do with politics. It’s an independent investigation into the activities of Durov and Telegram. The investigation is still going on.
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Krishi Chowdhary Journalist 
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