In a move that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov recently announced that his company will now hand over user IP address and phone number information to governments who make appropriate legal requests. The announcement comes just a few weeks after Durov was arrested in France. His arrest stems from allegations that he refused to adequately take measures to curb violent hate speech, money laundering, drug trafficking, firearm sales, terrorist activity, and the exchange of illicit sexual materials on the app.
Following his arrest, Durov scoffed at the charges and argued it would have a detrimental impact on innovation.
“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” Durov said in a Telegram post back on September 5.
“Building technology is hard enough as it is,” Durov continued. “No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”
Incidentally, Telegram currently boasts more than 950 million users across the globe.
Durov changed his tune following his arrest
Since his arrest last month, Durov — who is currently out on bail — has changed his tune ever so slightly. Durov now notes that he “won’t let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users.”
Recently, Durov announced that engineers at Telegram embarked on a broad search to remove problematic content from its search results. What’s more, Durov implored users who find problematic or illegal content in Telegram Search to report it immediately.
Durov’s recent Telegram post reads in part:
To further deter criminals from abusing Telegram Search, we have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, ensuring they are consistent across the world. 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.
These measures should discourage criminals. Telegram Search is meant for finding friends and discovering news, not for promoting illegal goods.
It stands to reason that Durov was feeling sufficient pressure from French authorities given the change in his stance. Previously, Telegram said it would only provide user data upon proof that a certain user was a terrorist.
It’s worth noting that Telegram’s new policies will not have any impact on end-to-end encrypted private chats as the company naturally has no way to decipher what is being communicated. Group chats and channel discussions on the app are also not encrypted.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how Telegram’s new moderation framework will impact the ongoing French investigation. Durov is currently charged with “complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group.” The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 Euros.
