Telegram founder and chief government Pavel Durov stated Monday that the messaging platform had eliminated extra “problematic content” and would take a extra proactive method to complying with authorities requests. The announcement comes weeks after his arrest in France on costs of failing to behave towards criminals utilizing the app.
Telegram’s search characteristic “has been abused by people who violated our terms of service to sell illegal goods”, Durov instructed the 13 million subscribers of his private messaging channel.
“Over the past few weeks” workers had combed by means of Telegram utilizing synthetic intelligence to make sure “all the problematic content we identified in Search is no longer accessible”, he stated.
Durov added that the platform had up to date its phrases of service and privateness coverage to clarify that it will share infringers’ particulars with authorities – together with web IP addresses and cellphone numbers – “in response to valid legal requests”.
“We won’t let bad actors jeopardise the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users,” he stated.
Durov was arrested on 24 August as he arrived at Le Bourget airport outdoors Paris on a non-public jet. After days of questioning, he was charged with a number of counts of failing to curb extremist and terrorist content material and launched on a €5m ($5.6m) bail. Throughout the investigation he should stay in France and report back to police twice every week.
Durov – who holds Russian, French, United Arab Emirates, and St Kitts and Nevis passports – initially criticised his arrest, however he has since introduced steps showing to bow to Paris’s calls for. On 6 September, he stated Telegram would alter its “people nearby” characteristic to current customers with “legitimate businesses” moderately than “bots and scammers”.
“This year we are committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise,” he stated on the time.
Durov, an enigmatic determine who hardly ever speaks in public, has a fortune estimated at $15.5bn by Forbes journal however touts the virtues of an ascetic life that features ice baths and never consuming alcohol or espresso.