Telegram will begin regulating private discussions after the CEO's arrest

Telegram has quietly removed language from its FAQ page that said private chats were protected from moderation requests. The change comes nearly two weeks after its CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France for allegedly allowing “criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app.” Earlier today, Durov issued his first public statement since his arrest, promising to moderate content more on the platform, a noticeable change in tone after the company initially said he had “nothing to hide.”

“Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform,” he wrote in the statement shared on Thursday. "That's why I've made it a personal goal to significantly improve things in this regard. We've already started this process internally and will share more details about our progress soon. »

It looks like some of these changes are already in effect: the company's FAQ page was modified within the last 24 hours. Take one section titled, “There’s illegal content on Telegram. How do I take it down?” As of September 5th, Telegram’s response to the question read, “All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We will not accept any requests regarding this. »

However, at the time of writing, these sentences have been removed. They have been replaced with "All Telegram apps have a 'Report' button that allows you to report illegal content to our moderators with just a few clicks," followed by instructions on how to report the message. Durov's arrest came after French authorities filed preliminary charges alleging that the messaging platform was being used to distribute child sexual abuse material and trafficking drugs, and that the company had refused to cooperate with the investigation, the Associated Press reported.