Telegram’s Pavel Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content after arrest
Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov said Monday that the messaging platform had removed more “problematic content” and would take a more proactive approach to complying with government requests. The announcement comes weeks after his arrest in France on charges of failing to act against criminals using the app.
Telegram’s search feature “has been abused by people who violated our terms of service to sell illegal goods”, Durov told the 13 million subscribers of his personal messaging channel.
“Over the past few weeks” staff had combed through Telegram using artificial intelligence to ensure “all the problematic content we identified in Search is no longer accessible”, he said.
Durov added that the platform had updated its terms of service and privacy policy to make clear that it would share infringers’ details with authorities – including internet IP addresses and phone numbers – “in response to valid legal requests”.
Durov was arrested on 24 August as he arrived at Le Bourget airport outside Paris on a private jet. After days of questioning, he was charged with several counts of failing to curb extremist and terrorist content and released on a €5m ($5.6m) bail. During the investigation he must remain in France and report to police twice a week.
