Telegram reportedly a playground for illegal activities & extremism

Recently, Telegram’s name has been in the spotlight following the arrest of its CEO, Pavel Durov. The whole case revolved around the messaging app’s lax moderation policies. Now, an investigation claims that Telegram is a kind of playground for illegal activity.

Research found thousands of Telegram channels related to illegal activities

The New York Times investigated approximately 3.2 million messages across 16,000 Telegram channels. According to the source, they found around 1,500 channels dedicated to sharing white supremacist propaganda. There were more than 20 easy-to-access weapon sales channels. Similarly, they discovered around 22 channels for selling illicit substances like MDMA, cocaine, heroin, and others.

French authorities cited this type of activity on Telegram to arrest its CEO. They claimed that Pavel Durov was complicit by not implementing stronger moderation systems. It’s noteworthy that one of Telegram’s core features has always been privacy. Furthermore, it’s an open-source app, so anyone with the necessary knowledge can review the code. Developers can even create their own fork (alternative client based on the original code). There are several forks available, such as Nekogram X, Forkgram, and Cherrygram, among others.

Telegram FAQ got a tweak after Durov’s arrest and release

Durov asserts that the application of the laws for his arrest was incorrect. “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” he said. After Durov’s release, Telegram made a moderation-related tweak to its FAQ. The previous version of the FAQ reads “All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.” Now, the new version says “All Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons that let you flag illegal content for our moderators — in just a few taps.”

The change raised fears among app users about the end of privacy. However, there are no modifications to the sections related to encryption of messages. The company is also not implementing moderation bots that review conversations and groups.