In an unprecedented move, the French officials arrested Mr. Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, one of the most successful social media platforms in the world with almost a billion users.
Accusations
The officials have accused Durov for not cooperating with law enforcement over fraud, child sexual content and drug trafficking. The Paris prosecutor said that Telegram CEO was under formal investigation over alleged offenses including:
- Complicity in administration of an online platform that allows unlawful transactions by organized gangs
- Refusing to communicate with the authorities
- Complicity in an organized criminal distribution of children’s sexual images
Defense
David-Olivier Kaminski, Durov’s Lawyer dubbed these charges as “absurd”, saying that his client did not have any direct or indirect involvement in these acts of crime. He further claimed that Telegram has complied with European digital regulations and has moderation standards similar to other social media networks.
Following its CEO’s arrest, Telegram said that they abide by European Union laws such as Digital Services Act, and proactively moderate harmful content on its platform including child abuse material, providing a safe online environment.
Reality
However, the app is popularly known to be a haven for online crimes and has been repeatedly criticized for being instrumental in sharing misinformation, conspiracists, terror-related and paedophilic content in huge groups.
NCMEC and IWF
Unlike other social media networks, Telegram is neither a member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) nor of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). Both of these organizations work with online platforms to find, report and remove harmful content.
US-based firms are legally required to sign up to programmes like NCMEC’s CyberTipline. More than 1600 internet companies have registered for such programmes, 16% of which are not based in the US.
Telegram is based in Dubai and has not signed up to such programmes. NCMEC has time and time again asked for Telegram’s help in tackling child sexual abuse material (CSAM) but the company is consistently ignoring their requests.
And that’s not an exception, Telegram have also been refusing to engage and take any services from IWF, UK’s equivalent of NCMEC, to block and prevent the sharing of CSAM. It is also important to note that once the material is confirmed to be CSAM, Telegram does remove it but IWF accuses the company for being very slow and less responsive to their day-to-day requests.
Now, it wouldn’t be a surprise to know that Telegram also didn’t take any part in the TakeItDown programme that works to remove revenge porn. Most of the online platforms like TikTok, Facebook, SnapChat and even Pornhub and Onlyfans are members of various programmes that use a hash list to scan for harmful images and videos on their encrypted platforms, while Telegram has repeatedly refused to do so.
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Transparency Reporting
It’s the social media platforms and tech giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter (X), Whatsapp, SnapChat, and Instagram that reports most of the CSAM. Telegram, on the other hand, does not appear to be interested in such transparency reporting.
Social media platforms take down some content because of police requests. Every six months, they publish a list of such harmful content they took down. All of Meta’s applications, TikTok and Snapchat, have created easy-to-access special libraries where they publish these reports.
But Telegram does not have any dedicated website, only a channel with a blank library history for transparency reports. Currently, when the BBC requested for previous reports, there was no reply and said that there was “no report available for your region”.
An Attack on Freedom of Speech?
Such actions of Telegram have certainly raised the questions regarding accountability of social media and messaging platforms and the role of their owners in the crimes happening on their platforms. However, many people are also criticizing the arrest of the owner of a social media company, saying it’s an attack on freedom of speech.
Elon Musk defended Durov, saying that moderation is just a propaganda word for censorship and asked for the CEO’s release. Edward Snowden also said that the act arresting Durov was an assault on basic human rights of speech and association.
Amidst all these debates, Telegram CEO agreed to co-operate with the officials and has promised to provide data. Following that, Telegram ensured that they will make changes to their privacy policy and turn over bad actor’s data to law enforcement.
What do you think?
Was Telegram and its CEO really at fault?
Or was it an attack on freedom of speech?
Kushalam 