Telegram will now allow people to report illegal content in private chats

Telegram has been in the headlines recently, and it’s also under scrutiny from the EU. Its founder, Pavel Durov, has promised to address abuse on the platform. Now, it was discovered by CoinDesk that Telegram has quietly edited its FAQ section to remove language stating it doesn’t moderate private and group chats.Now, the section with the heading “There’s illegal content on Telegram. How do I take it down” says that all Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons, and this gives users a way to flag illegal content to the app’s moderators. On Android, you need to tap the message to choose the Report option, while on iOS, you have to press and hold the message. You can also take note of links to the content you want to report and send an email to Telegram’s anti-abuse email address: abuse@telegram.org. Telegram’s founder Durov was arrested earlier in France as part of authorities’ investigation into the lack of moderation on the app. He was then released from custody but charged with allegedly being compliant in distributing illegal content on the messaging app, as well as allegedly refusing to cooperate.

Durov said that Telegram defends the basic rights of people, and gave an example of Russia, where Telegram got banned when the service refused to hand over encryption keys that would allow authorities to spy on users. Durov said Telegram takes down millions of harmful posts and channels every day as well.

Telegram is also looking to improve and has started to process internally to make it less easy for criminals to abuse its platform.

Telegram is also under scrutiny from the EU for reportedly having misrepresented the number of users it has to avoid being restricted under the EU’s DSA (Digital Services Act). EU officials are currently investigating the app and it could face fines if found that it downplayed its user count to avoid regulations by the DSA.

I think Telegram’s new way of allowing people to report content is a great step towards improving the service and ensuring criminals aren’t using it. Of course, it’s easier said than done, as criminals find ways to abuse most platforms online anyway, but it’s a fight that has to be fought.