Telegram will start handing over the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate their Terms of Service “to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests”, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has announced on Monday.
This is a big change for the company, as its Privacy Policy previously allowed Telegram to do that only for confirmed terror suspects.
The change comes a month after Durov was arrested in France as part of an investigation into the app’s facilitation of crime due to the company’s failure to effectively moderate groups and cooperate with law enforcement.
The problem with Telegram
Telegram is a social media and instant messaging service that’s popular with users around the world.
Its reputation as a privacy preserving app – mostly due to the end-to-end encryption option for one-on-one Chats (but not Groups), and partly due to the company’s previous stance on sharing information with law enforcement – has attracted dissidents, activists, and those looking to circumvent censorship efforts, but also criminals who don’t want to risk using dark web marketplaces and forums.
There are Telegram groups/channels for sharing and selling stolen credentials, discussing vulnerabilities and attack tools, selling proxy access, recruting criminals and hacktivists, sharing deepfakes and child sexual abuse material, trafficking illegal substances, and more.
Law eforcement agencies from a number of countries have lamented the company’s reluctance (or impotence?) to put a stop to these activities, despite their claims that “its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”
French law enforcement went a step further, and arrested Pavel Durov last month. (He has been released on bail a few days later, but has been ordered not to leave the country.)
Telegram may comply with legal requests for info on users involved in criminal activities
Up until Monday, Telegram’s Terms of Service required users to not use the service to send spam, scam users, or promote violence or post illegal pornographic content on publicly viewable Telegram channels, bots, etc.
In the updated ToS, Telegram says users should also not “engage in activities that are recognized as illegal in the majority of countries,” such as child abuse, selling or offering drugs, firearms, forged documents, and so on.
“If Telegram receives a valid order from the relevant judicial authorities that confirms you’re a suspect in a case involving criminal activities that violate the Telegram Terms of Service, we will perform a legal analysis of the request and may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities,” the updated Privacy Policy now states.
“If any data is shared, we will include such occurrences in a quarterly transparency report published at: https://t.me/transparency.”
In his post, Durov also says that Telegram Search feature has been abused by people to sell illegal goods, and that a dedicated team of moderators (with the help of AI) has been identifying problematic content and made it no longer accessible via Search.
“If you still manage to find something unsafe or illegal in Telegram Search, please report it to us via @SearchReport,” he added.
These new measures are meant to discourage criminals, but will mean little if there is no sustained effort on the part of the company on all counts.
It also remains to be seen how Telegram will respond to valid orders from judicial authorities in countries that use them as means to identify and imprison political dissidents and activists.