A New York Times analysis of more than 3.2 million Telegram messages from 16,000 channels found that the messaging platform is “abundant” with illicit and extremist activity.
Specifically, the Times found 1,500 channels run by white supremacists, more than two dozen channels selling weapons and at least 22 channels advertising the delivery of MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other drugs.
The company's founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France last month, with authorities alleging that Telegram's lack of content moderation made Durov complicit in illegal activity on the platform.
The platform later updated its website to allow for abuse reporting, and Durov took to his Telegram channel to argue that using “pre-smartphone laws to prosecute CEOs for crimes committed by third parties on the platforms they control is the wrong approach.”
