{"id":161,"date":"2024-09-06T18:33:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T18:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2024-09-06T18:33:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T18:33:06","slug":"two-weeks-on-from-pavel-durovs-arrest-telegram-ramps-up-moderation-of-illegal-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=161","title":{"rendered":"Two weeks on from Pavel Durov\u2019s arrest, Telegram ramps up moderation of \u2018illegal content\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Less than two weeks after Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov\u2019s high-profile arrest by French police<\/a>, the company has announced that it will start moderating \u201cillegal content\u201d in the platform\u2019s private and group chats.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the word \u201cannounced\u201d is overstating a change so subtle it took eagle-eyed journalists to notice the new wording in a paragraph buried inside a revised Telegram FAQ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After years of allegedly stonewalling police enquiries \u2014 as well as refusing to join<\/a> international initiatives designed to detect and remove child abuse material \u2014 the company appears to have had a change of heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Telegram apps have \u2018Report\u2019 buttons that let you flag illegal content for our moderators \u2014 in just a few taps,\u201d states the FAQ published on Thursday in answer to the question, \u201cThere\u2019s illegal content on Telegram. How do I take it down?\u201d<\/p>\n

This is different wording from the previous version, as recorded<\/a> on the Wayback Machine the day before.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them,\u201d that version stated.<\/p>\n

Both include an official email address for reporting illegal content, but the new version makes it clear that this channel is specifically for reporting, \u201ccontent on Telegram which you think needs attention from our moderators.\u201d<\/p>\n

To some, the new wording will sound nuanced for a platform that has consistently been criticized for paying little heed to an alleged flood of criminal content that has found a home on it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s new is the explicit reference to a moderation process, something Telegram has never promoted in the past.<\/p>\n

Growing pains<\/h2>\n

On the same day as the tweak to the FAQ, Pavel Durov released a statement<\/a> that reads as part apologia, and part acknowledgement that the company\u2019s content oversight needs an upgrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people\u2019s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn\u2019t receive responses from Telegram,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools,\u201d added Durov, before conceding: \u201cHowever, we hear voices saying that it\u2019s not enough. Telegram\u2019s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, having a reporting address for moderation requests is not the same thing as actually doing it. Telegram will be heavily scrutinized on that score, but it could prove heavy going. Other social media platforms have struggled to contain abuse despite employing large moderation teams dedicated to the task.<\/p>\n

No secrets<\/h2>\n

The issue of moderation has overshadowed another issue, namely privacy. It\u2019s something that seems to endlessly confuse the users of all messaging apps.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp, Signal, and Google\u2019s RCS-based Messages all employ end-to-end encryption (E2EE) using the Signal protocol. This means that communications can\u2019t be eavesdropped on because the keys used to encrypt them are stored only on the sending devices.<\/p>\n

Telegram\u2019s approach is more confusing. By default, there is no E2EE<\/a> on Telegram private or group messages. These are encrypted server side, which means that, in theory, the company can decrypt their content if it wants to. Telegram private chats offer E2EE, but it\u2019s inconvenient to set up. Durov has blogged<\/a> on why the company eschews E2EE, mainly, he claimed, so that users can conveniently back up and access messages across multiple devices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the main reason why it makes sense for police to target criminals on the platform in a way that\u2019s impossible with apps using E2EE: Telegram should be able to unscramble the content of Telegram messages if it chooses to.<\/p>\n

Of course, as an app which has long played on its unruly MO, Telegram doesn\u2019t want to advertise that uncomfortable possibility. Indeed, the company has long talked up its willingness to resist government oversight, including falling out<\/a> with Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2018 over its refusal to grant access to communications.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear \u2014 although perhaps less so to much of its user base \u2014 is that Telegram is not, and never has been, a guaranteed confidential channel.<\/p>\n

Despite this, figures as senior as France\u2019s President Macron himself are reportedly<\/a> enthusiastic users. Some politicians in the US are also said<\/a> to have embraced Telegram, ironically because they see it as being less inclined towards moderation.<\/p>\n

Does this super-connected user base understand the risks that come with Telegram, including to apparently confidential messages sent months or years ago? Presumably not, or they wouldn\u2019t have used it so extensively.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all part of a wider movement towards informal off-channel communication that has leaders and businesspeople using a wide range of platforms on the basis that what is said there, stays there. That assumption might be in the process of unraveling.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s not always appreciated is how rapidly platforms such as Telegram are evolving away from their communication and content broadcast roots towards new capabilities such as crypto. These take its development and future in a very different direction.<\/p>\n

At the same time, it\u2019s still a surprisingly small company<\/a>, with revenue of only $342 million in 2023. The crypto business unit dominates the bottom line. <\/p>\n

Telegram might have changed its policy on illegal content, but It\u2019s hard to see how such a small workforce will allow it to provide the sort of hands-on moderation the authorities might now be expecting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Less than two weeks after Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov\u2019s high-profile arrest by French police, the company has announced that it will start moderating \u201cillegal content\u201d in the platform\u2019s private and group chats. Perhaps the word \u201cannounced\u201d is overstating a change so subtle it took eagle-eyed journalists to notice the new wording in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}