Durov Says Telegram Will Tackle Criticism of How It Moderates Content

Telegram boss Pavel Durov said on Friday that the messaging app would tackle criticism of its content moderation and remove some features that had been abused for illegal activity.

Durov, who was last week placed under formal investigation in France in connection with the use of Telegram for crimes including fraud, money laundering and sharing images of child sex abuse, announced the move in a message to his 12.2 million subscribers on the platform.

"While 99.999 per cent of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001 per cent involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost

billion users at risk," the Russian-born tech entrepreneur wrote on Telegram. "That’s why this year we are committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise."

Durov said Telegram had disabled new media uploads to a standalone blogging tool "which seems to have been misused by anonymous actors".

He said it had also removed a little-used People Nearby feature which "had issues with bots and scammers" and would instead showcase legitimate, verified business in the vicinity of users.

The changes are the first he has announced since being arrested last month in France and questioned for four days before being placed under formal investigation and released on bail.

His lawyer has said it was absurd to investigate Durov in connection with crimes committed by other people on the app.

In a previous post on Thursday, Durov said Telegram was not perfect. "But the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue," he wrote. "We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day."