Telegram Boss Agrees to Closer Police Cooperation

Telegram boss Pavel Durov has committed the platform to working more closely with law enforcement, while also cracking down on illegal activity.

The Russian-born founder and CEO of the messaging platform said IP addresses and telephone numbers of those who break the app’s rules will be shared with police “in response to valid legal requests.”

This is a departure from the previous policy, which was only to share such information with law enforcement on receipt of a court order indicating suspected terrorism charges.

Telegram’s terms of service have now been updated accordingly.

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Durov also announced a crackdown on users who violated Telegram’s terms of service to sell illegal goods like drugs.

“Over the past few weeks, a dedicated team of moderators, leveraging AI, has made Telegram Search much safer. All the problematic content we identified in Search is no longer accessible. If you still manage to find something unsafe or illegal in Telegram Search, please report it to us,” he wrote.

“These measures should discourage criminals. Telegram Search is meant for finding friends and discovering news, not for promoting illegal goods. We won’t let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users.”

The news comes just weeks after Durov, who is also a French citizen, was detained by authorities in Paris and reportedly questioned over what he described as “other people’s illegal use of Telegram.”

The latest attempts to clean up the platform have been welcomed by experts.

“The default setting on Telegram is not end-to-end encrypted and therefore content can be viewed by Telegram itself, making it a potential treasure trove of evidence for law enforcement if requested,” explained former police officer and ESET global cybersecurity advisor, Jake Moore. 

“When prosecutions for cybercrime are so low, this new proactive approach could make a huge impact in the disrupting of online criminality. Although unlikely to stop it altogether, forced moves such as this can help in the disruption of crime, which is a proactive police tactic.”

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