Telegram Joins Child Safety Scheme

The Telegram messenger app has joined an online child protection scheme, after years of refusal and to engage with such requests.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) announced that “Telegram will deploy new tools to proactively prevent child sexual abuse imagery from being spread in public parts of its platform.”

The development comes after previous investigations revealed that encrypted apps including Telegram and Discord were being used by criminals to peddle unsavoury and illegal content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Historical opposition

In 2019 for example BBC investigators found evidence that paedophiles were using both Telegram and Discord to give people access to child abuse material.

Other tech groups including Google’s YouTube service, have invested heavily in fighting against child abuse material, and will take it down when they become aware of it.

Tools from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) are also used by major platforms to help them detect and remove CSAM, and prevent its spread.

To be fair Telegram has previously stated that when reported, child abuse images are usually processed within one hour. Discord likewise has previously stated it proactively tries to protect the safety of its users, and urges users to only chat with or accept invitations from individuals they already know.

However Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has for years been reluctant to join official schemes, citing the platform’s strict privacy stance against the sharing of confidential data with government entities. He has also fiercely resisted other government’s attempts to weaken end-to-end encryption or provide access to people’s messages.

Telegram had refused for example to comply with demands Russia’s FSB Federal Security Service which wanted access to some messages.

Child abuse crackdown

But now the IWF has noted that Telegram has agreed to work with the internationally recognised body to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

“For the first time, the social media platform, which has more than 950 million active users a month, will use tools and data from the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in addition to its own to detect, disrupt, remove, and block child sexual abuse imagery,” it stated.

“Today (December 4) the IWF has announced it has granted Telegram membership in an agreement which will give it access to the IWF’s world-leading datasets and tried and trusted technology to help tackle child sexual abuse imagery on the platform,” it added.

“This is a transformational first step on a much longer journey,” said Derek Ray-Hill, Interim CEO at the IWF. “Child sexual abuse imagery is a horror that blights our world wherever it exists.”

“Now, by joining the IWF, Telegram can begin deploying our world-leading tools to help make sure this material cannot be shared on the service,” said Ray-Hill. “It is an important moment, and we will be working hard with Telegram to make sure this commitment continues and expands to the whole sector.”

The IWF has previously stated it had confirmed thousands of reports of child sexual abuse imagery on Telegram since 2022 – including category A imagery (the most severe kinds of child sexual abuse), and imagery involving children younger than two years old.

When the IWF reported this content to Telegram, it was removed by the platform.

Telegram will now apparently use a range of IWF services, including taking IWF “hashes”, unique digital fingerprints of millions of known child sexual abuse images and videos, to instantly spot when this criminal content is being shared in public parts of the site.

These will then be blocked and prevented. As well as this, the IWF will report directly into Telegram when child sexual abuse imagery is detected and work with them to remove it swiftly. The IWF will work closely with Telegram to ensure its services are being used effectively.

They will also deploy tools to block “non-photographic” depictions of child sexual abuse, including known AI child sexual abuse imagery, as well as tools which will block links to webpages known to be harbouring child sexual abuse material.

The IWF will also look to offer bespoke solutions to specific abuses of the site, including helping identify and stop accounts being used for distributing and profiting from commercialised child sexual abuse material.

“Telegram removes hundreds of thousands of child abuse materials each month, relying on reports and proactive moderation which includes AI, machine learning and hash-matching,” said Remi Vaughn, head of press and media relations at Telegram.

“The IWF’s datasets and tools will strengthen the mechanisms Telegram has in place to protect its public platform – and further ensure that Telegram can continue to effectively delete child abuse materials before they can reach any users,” said Vaughn.

Pavel Durov arrest

The change comes after Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of Telegram, is currently in France after he was arrested in August amid a police investigation into him allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes on the platform due to a lack of content moderators, coupled with a lack of co-operation with police.

Prosecutors at the time claimed the platform has failed to take action against harmful and criminal content on the site, including child sexual abuse imagery.

French judges have barred the 40-year-old from leaving France pending further investigations, and Durov remains on bail.

The company maintains that his arrest is unfair, and that he should not be held liable for what users do on the platform.

Policy changes

But since his arrest there has been changes. In September Telegram made a notable policy change to its long-standing refusal to co-operate with law enforcement about users or data on its platform.

Telegram said it will hand over the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate its rules to authorities – but only with “valid legal requests.”

And Durov has also vowed to “turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise”.

The partnership with the IWF appears to be the latest step in that process.

Dubai-based Telegram is widely used in Russia and countries across the former Soviet Union and Middle East. It is said to be the most popular instant messaging application in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

In September Ukraine banned the platform on state-owned devices, due to national security concerns amid Russia’s illegal invasion of that country.