After years of ignoring pleas to sign up to child protection programs, controversial messaging app Telegram has agreed to cooperate with an internationally recognized agency to stop the spread of the material Child sexual abuse (CSAM).
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is used by major online services to help them detect and remove child sexual abuse content and prevent its spread.
Telegram many times refuse to participate with it or any similar plan.
However, four months later founder Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris As for Telegram’s alleged failure to censor extremist content, the platform has announced a U-turn.
IWF described Telegram’s decision as a “change” but warned that it was the first step in a “much longer journey” for the app.
“By joining IWF, Telegram can begin deploying our world-leading tools to help ensure this document cannot be tampered with,” said Derek Ray-Hill, Interim CEO of IWF. share on the service”.
Telegram is used by about 950 million people worldwide and has previously positioned itself as an app that focuses on user privacy rather than the policy norms adopted by global social media companies. different priorities.
But reports from the BBC and other news organizations are emphatic Criminals use the application to advertise drugs as well as provide fraud and cybercrime services and, most recently, CSAM.
It prompted one expert to call it “the dark web in your pocket”.
In August, its billionaire owner was detained at an airport north of Paris.
Mr. Durov was accused of failing to cooperate with law enforcement regarding drug trafficking, child pornography and fraud.
French judges banned the 40-year-old man from leaving France pending further investigation.
The company maintains that His arrest was unfairand that he is not responsible for what users do on the platform.
However, Telegram has announced a series of changes to how it works, including:
- Notify the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate its provisions will be handed over to the police in response to valid legal requests
- Disabling features like “people nearby” they admit has problems with bots and scammers
- Publish regular transparency reports on the amount of content taken down – a standard industry practice that they have previously refused to comply with
Mr. Durov also vowed to “turn Telegram censorship from a place of criticism into a place of praise.”
The partnership with IWF appears to be the latest step in that process.
IWF is one of the few organizations in the world that can legally search for child pornography and take it down.
Its ever-growing list of known abusive content is used by websites to detect and block matches to prevent that content from spreading.
Telegram says that before becoming a member of the IWF, it removed hundreds of thousands of abusive content each month using its own system. The company said membership of the IWF would strengthen its mechanisms.
The app is marketed as a messaging service that is fully encrypted end-to-end – meaning only the sender and recipient of the message can read it – like WhatsApp and Signal.
But in reality, the majority of communication is done using standard encryption, raising questions about how secure it is against hacking and interception.
Mr Durov, born in Russia and now living in Dubai, holds citizenship of Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and Nevis.
Telegram is especially popular in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union as well as Iran.
