Telegram has quietly updated its policy to allow users to report private chats to moderators after founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France for “crimes committed by third parties” on the platform.
The messaging app, which serves about a billion monthly active users, has long had a reputation for minimal oversight of user interactions.
On Thursday night, Telegram began implementing changes to its moderation policy. “Every Telegram app has a ‘Report’ button that allows you to report illegal content to our moderators in just a few taps,” the company wrote on its updated FAQ page.
The platform also provides an email address for automated removal requests and instructs users to include links to content that needs reviewer attention.
It’s unclear how and if this change will affect Telegram’s ability to respond to law enforcement requests. The company has previously cooperated with court orders to share some information about its users.
TechCrunch has reached out to Telegram for comment.
The Dubai-based company also edited its FAQ page to remove two sentences that previously emphasized its privacy stance on private chats. The previous version stated, “All Telegram chats and group chats are private between participants. We do not process requests related to this.”
The policy change follows the arrest of Durov by French authorities in connection with an investigation into crimes involving child sexual abuse images, drug trafficking and fraud.
In response to the arrest, Durov posted on his Telegram channel criticizing the move: “Prosecuting a CEO for crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages using pre-smartphone laws is the wrong approach.”
He argued that countries dissatisfied with Internet service typically sue the service itself, rather than its regulators.
