2024-09-24 11:40:28
Telegram is accused of not cooperating sufficiently with authorities. Founder Durow now wants to change that.
The chat service Telegram will share more information with investigators following the temporary arrest of its founder, Pavel Durov. Telegram will in future provide authorities with the telephone number and IP address of suspects upon official request, according to a new version of the service’s data protection policy. Previously, this was only intended for terror suspects.
Now, however, there is general talk of the suspicion of “criminal acts”. At the same time, Telegram will carry out a legal assessment of the request before passing on the information. The IP address can, under certain circumstances, provide clues to a user’s whereabouts.
Durov wrote in a post on Telegram that the change was intended to prevent abuse of the online service’s search function, which some had used “to sell illegal items.”
The Telegram founder was detained in France for several days, is free on bail and is not allowed to leave France. Investigators in Paris accuse him of inadequate cooperation with the authorities. He is also alleged to be complicit in drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud and several offenses related to child abuse.
Telegram is accused of not taking consistent enough action against criminal activities. Durow denied this after his arrest. “We remove millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish transparency reports every day,” Durow wrote.
At the same time, he also admitted that this was probably not enough and that Telegram wanted to become significantly better at moderating content. Even then, he promised progress soon. The goal is for the network industry as a whole to become stronger and safer, said the Telegram founder.