Telegram Makes Subtle Change in Approach to Moderating Private Chats

Telegram has changed the wording on its FAQ page relating to how private chats are moderated.

No longer is there a statement that private chats are protected and “we do not process any requests related to them.”

In response to the change, Telegram spokesperson? said the app’s source code remains unchanged and that it clarified how to report content on the social media and instant messaging platform.?

The company’s CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France on August 24th due to alleged offences by app users. French authorities claimed insufficient moderation and a failure to cooperate with investigations into illegal activity.?

Durov has made his first public statement since the incident, writing on Telegram to express his position that his detention was “misguided” and the allegations are “absolutely untrue.”?

The Russian and United Arab Emirates dual national also intimated in his statement that the company would take action to crack down on criminals seeking to exploit the app’s security credentials.?

“I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard,” he said, with signs of activity emerging already.

That has been underlined with the shift in language.

I'm still trying to understand what happened in France. But we hear the concerns. I made it my personal goal to prevent abusers of Telegram's platform from interfering with the future of our 950+ million users.

My full post below. https://t.co/cDvRSodjst

— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 5, 2024

Telegram Questioned on What the Removed Text Was Related to

As mentioned, the language used in Telegram’s FAQ page has been amended. However, company representative Remi Vaughn is adamant the company isn’t doing something that hasn’t been done before.

He told The Verge that “private chats are still private too,” and that you could always report incoming chats. Telegram’s source code is open and lets anyone see the changes, Vaughn added.

Vaughn insisted the changes to the FAQ text were only to make it clearer to users how to report content, and that the removed language was not related to this.

At the time of writing, Telegram has not responded to a question regarding what the removed text was referring to.

Before, the FAQ section said that Telegram’s team “do[es] not process any requests” for private conversations.

Now, the same section does not contain those sentences but instead reads, “All Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons that let you flag illegal content for our moderators in just a few taps,” followed by the necessary steps.