As Durov Hits Out At French Authorities, Telegram Quietly Revamps Moderation Rules

In his first public statements since his arrest by France on Aug. 24 at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov blasted French authorities for detaining and charging him, but also admitted that Telegram is not perfect that he’ll work to clean up instances of criminals abusing the platform.

He argued in a post to Telegram that it wildly departs from norms for a government to go after a CEO personally, as opposed to the “established practice” of bringing legal against the company.

“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,” the billionaire tech entrepreneur wrote. 

“Building technology is hard enough as it is,” he continued. “No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”

“We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance [between privacy and security],” Durov continued. “Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue.”

Durav was detained by the National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF), over the alleged facilitation of various crimes including terrorism, narcotics trafficking, child abuse, modey laundering and fraud. “On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offences and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate,” a source told TF1 TV.

It appears that Telegram has already begun quietly implementing changes in response to French and EU criticisms surrounding the case, especially related to the issue of chat moderation…

Telegram quietly updates FAQ, removing:

“All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.” pic.twitter.com/ajWOOBAAB5

— db (@tier10k) September 6, 2024

“We hear voices saying that it’s not enough,” Durov said in his new post. “Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard.”

Coindesk has described the initial changes to the app/platform already made as ‘radical‘:

Telegram is radically altering its stance towards “illegal” use of its messaging days after CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France for allegedly failing to police law-breaking content.

On Thursday night, the formerly freewheeling texting app extended its moderators’ reach to include private chats. For the first time, users in private chats can “flag illegal content” for review, Telegram wrote in a change on its FAQ page. An older version of the same page said Telegram treated private groups as off-limits.

Durov has still maintained his stance that the formal charges against him are meritless. Others have argued that the case would be akin to prosecuting Google executives for any and all criminal or abusive communications or postings. In many cases tech companies are left seeking to moderate potentially criminal and offensive content – but which is like seeking a needle in a haystack.

And all of this is raising questions of encrypted communications and the lengths European governments in particular might go to try stamp out its use among the citizenry:

The listed charges include “complicity” in crimes ranging from possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material to selling narcotics and money laundering. Durov is also being investigated for refusing to comply with requests to enable “interceptions” from law enforcement and for importing and providing an encryption tool without declaring it. (While encrypted messaging is legal in France, anyone importing the tech has to register with the government.)

He’s also accused of “criminal association with a view to committing a crime” punishable by more than five years in prison.

France uses arcane cyber law to charge Pavel Durov: it forces any company offering cryptology tools to notify France’s ANSSI cybersecurity agency and keep “a description of the technical characteristics of the cryptology tool” as well as the source code https://t.co/dcOaIsbdIq

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 5, 2024

There are reports saying that EU regulators will seek to enforce the strictest content moderation possible on Telegram. This has raised the alarm over vital questions of free speech from other major social media platform owners, especially Elon Musk.

Last week Durov was released from custody, with travel limitations imposed by a French judge, after posting €5 million, or about $5.5 million, for bail. He is barred from leaving France, and his movements are being monitored.