Telegram Removes FAQ Language on Chat Privacy After CEO’s Arrest in France
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Telegram Removes FAQ Language on Chat Privacy After CEO’s Arrest in France
Loveworld / 43 seconds
September 7, 2024
2 min read
Telegram has recently updated its FAQ page, removing language that previously stated private chats were protected and that the company did not process requests related to them. This change comes less than two weeks after CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest in France on allegations that Telegram allowed “criminal activity to go on undeterred.”
In response to the update, Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn confirmed that the app’s source code remains unchanged. “Private chats are still private too – although you could always report a new incoming chat to moderators by using Block > Report. Anyone can check Telegram’s open-source code and see there were no changes,” Vaughn stated.
Earlier on Thursday, Durov made his first public statement since his arrest, committing to increased moderation on the platform. This marks a shift from the company’s previous stance, which had asserted that it had “nothing to hide.”
Durov acknowledged that Telegram’s rapid growth to 950 million users had led to challenges, including increased criminal misuse of the platform. He pledged to enhance content moderation and improve the platform’s safety, promising further details on these changes soon.
The recent FAQ update reflects these shifts: the section on handling illegal content now instructs users to use the ‘Report’ button to flag problematic messages, replacing the previous assertion that Telegram did not process requests related to private chats.
