By James Lewis, SciTech Deputy Editor
I’m sure that the app Telegram is well known amongst students in Bristol… ahem, where was I? Ah yes – the messaging app, which was launched in 2013, gives users the ability to chat securely amongst friends and groups. Its main difference to services like WhatsApp is that Telegram accommodates for up to 200,000 people on their 'Channels', creating groups that are less like private group chats and more like platforms for spreading information, like X or Instagram.
In August, their CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in a French airport; investigations had been conducted into the moderation of his app. Telegram, and its CEO, were accused of failing to cooperate with law enforcement over criminal activity running through the app.
Telegram, through the size of their private channels, have essentially created unmoderated social media platforms, that have been exploited by extremist and conspiracy theorist groups, and has also been used for the spread of indecent images of children and sexual abuse victims.
The riots that took place in the UK, including in Bristol, in late July and early August of this year, are largely believed to have been partly organised through the use of these massive Telegram Channels.
While Telegram advertises itself as an end-to-end encrypted messaging service – where only the device sending and the device receiving the message can view it – this is not the default setting. The vast majority of Telegram’s reported 950 million users are, of course, doing nothing wrong and are entitled to their privacy, should they wish to. However, Telegram has failed to cooperate with intelligence agencies who wish to access some of these messages in order to protect the wider population. Telegram has used the innocence of the many to deny this access and as such may be responsible in aiding heinous crimes.
Another big theme in the arrest and the investigations is related to the spread of misinformation. Something that other CEOs, most notably Elon Musk, have been criticised for. Since 2020, Telegram has seen an increase of 326 percent in channels that are spreading misinformation. This is particularly worrying when many people, especially impressionable teenagers, get most, if not all, of their news and information from the internet.
Since Mr Durov's arrest at the end of August, Telegram have announced that, what they call, 'problematic content' has been removed from their site. This comes after Telegram allowed the use of an AI to go through the site and identify potentially harmful material. Telegram’s privacy policy has changed, but Durov said that 'not much has changed.'
This arrest sets a new precedent for what governments are beginning to expect from large tech corporations. As more of our lives are moving to the internet, policing is inevitably, and for the right reasons, going to increase. While the actions of internet users can’t be blamed on the platforms that are being used, surely we should demand sufficient action is taken to protect those who need it most.
Featured image: TechCrunch
