Telegram’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, now regrets that criminals are exploiting his platform and promises to do what he can to make Telegram a “safer” place – a process that has reportedly already begun internally.
Meanwhile, Telegram has quietly updated its FAQ, replacing promises that chats are private and that data from them will not be shared with outsiders with instructions on how users can report “suspicious” messages.
In late August, Mr. Durov was arrested by French police but released after four days if he promised not to leave the country while the investigation against him was ongoing.
The reason for Durov’s arrest was that he was not considered to be doing enough to censor, monitor and otherwise prevent criminals from using Telegram for criminal activities – and that, as CEO, he was allegedly personally responsible for crimes committed on Telegram, which is why he reportedly faced a multi-year prison sentence.
Now, critics say that the pressure from the French police has paid off, and Durov has been pressured to introduce more censorship and surveillance on the messaging platform. Telegram has quietly updated its FAQ to include the sentence “All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them” seems to have disappeared or been hidden.
Instead, users are now greeted with the text “All Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons” that will give a way for users to flag illegal content for the app’s moderators”, followed by instructions on how users should go about reporting posts they want reviewed.
Telegram quietly updates FAQ, removing:
“All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.” pic.twitter.com/ajWOOBAAB5
— db (@tier10k) September 6, 2024
“Always open to dialogue”
That more censorship and surveillance may be in store for Telegram also seems to be confirmed by a statement from Durov himself yesterday.
“Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram”, he begins, saying that he was “surprised” to learn about this.
Durov stresses that official representatives already respond to requests from the EU and other authorities, and that there have been various opportunities for disgruntled countries to initiate legal proceedings against Telegram if they were “unhappy” with the way the platform was being run.
“We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance. Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue”, he continues, explaining that they have left countries where they have not been able to work with authorities to find “the right balance between privacy and security”.
“When Russia demanded we hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated”, Durov added.
“Already started the process”
At the same time, he says that we “we hear voices saying that it’s not enough”, and that it has become easier for criminals to abuse the platform as it has grown very quickly.
“That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon. I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger”.
I’m still trying to understand what happened in France. But we hear the concerns. I made it my personal goal to prevent abusers of Telegram’s platform from interfering with the future of our 950+ million users.
My full post below. https://t.co/cDvRSodjst
— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 5, 2024
Exactly how or what will be “improved” is not clear, but many interpret the move as Durov being pressured or persuaded to introduce more censorship and surveillance on Telegram – and speculate that this is either to avoid the app being shut down and banned in France and other EU countries, or because Durov does not want to risk being imprisoned, paying large damages, or otherwise being personally punished for messages written on the platform.
