Telegram ignored outreach from child safety watchdogs before CEO’s arrest, groups say

Before Telegram’s CEO was arrested in France, the app had gained a reputation for ignoring advocacy groups fighting child exploitation.

Three of those groups, the U.S.-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation, all told NBC News that their outreach to Telegram about child sexual abuse material, often shorthanded as CSAM, on the platform has largely been ignored.

Pavel Durov, a co-founder and the CEO of Telegram, a messaging and news app that’s widely used in former Soviet countries and has become increasingly popular with the U.S. far right and groups banned from other platforms, remains in the custody of French authorities, who arrested him Saturday. 

The Paris prosecutor, who hasn’t announced charges, said Monday that Durov was arrested as part of an investigation into an unnamed person. The claims against the person include “complicity” in illegal transactions and possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, the prosecutor said in a statement.

Telegram wrote in a statement on X that it abides by European Union laws. It said that Durov has “nothing to hide” and that it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

Telegram has long branded itself as relatively unmoderated and unwilling to work with law enforcement. Durov said in April it had 900 million regular users.

John Shehan, senior vice president of NCMEC’s Exploited Children Division & International Engagement, said he was encouraged by France’s decision to arrest Durov because Telegram has been such a haven for CSAM.

“Telegram is truly in a league of their own as far as their lack of content moderation or even interest in preventing child sexual exploitation activity on their platform,” he said

“It is encouraging to see the French government, French police, taking some action to potentially rectify this type of activity,” Shehan said.

Telegram’s website says it never responds to any reports of any kind of illegal activity in private or group chats, “even if reported by a user.” It also says that unlike other major tech platforms, which routinely comply with court orders and warrants for user data, “we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments.”

NBC News asked Telegram to comment on the groups’ claims that their efforts to flag CSAM have been ignored. In a statement, Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughan didn’t address their comments but said the platform “actively moderates harmful content on its platform including child abuse materials.”

“Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring of public parts of the platform, AI tools, and user reports to remove content that breaches Telegram’s terms of service,” Vaughan said. Telegram maintains a channel that gives daily updates on how many groups and channels have been reported for child abuse, and it claims thousands of public groups are banned daily.