What is going on with Telegram?

The instant messaging app Telegram is making headlines again, less than a month after the arrest of its CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov in France. French authorities had detained Durov as part of an investigation into child pornography, drug trafficking, and fraudulent transactions on the platform. After years of illicit activities carried out via Telegram, the CEO announced in a post on the app a policy update: the platform will now provide IP addresses and phone numbers of suspicious users to the authorities. According to Durov, this decision aims to put an end to the illegitimate use of Telegram. A surprising decision, considering Durov's stance over the years, where he claimed he had never shared “even a byte of personal information of its users.” On one hand, Telegram has been a pioneer in protecting its users' privacy, in a world where sensitive data is often sold to third parties without user consent. On the other hand, however, this same policy has allowed the platform to be widely abused for criminal purposes, turning it into a sort of "pocket dark web."

In recent months, Telegram has been sharply criticized by several governments. In South Korea, for instance, the platform has been accused of exacerbating the country’s deep-fake pornography crisis. Since Durov’s arrest, more and more child pornography groups on Telegram have been uncovered, causing shock and outrage across other social media platforms. Several countries have tried to block the app: just earlier this week, Ukraine banned using Telegram on official government and military devices. The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council stated that the Kremlin uses the app for “cyberattacks, phishing and malware distribution, user geolocation, and missile attack coordination.” Durov quickly denied the accusations of selling information to the Russian government, stressing that Telegram has never shared any messaging data, not even with Russia. Paradoxically, Russia itself attempted to block the app in 2018, a ban that was never fully enforced after the CEO promised to help combat extremism and terrorism, not only in Russia but worldwide. According to Durov’s recent statements, Telegram will adopt even stricter measures: a larger team of moderators and an advanced artificial intelligence system that will help make the platform a safer place.