Telegram CEO Pavel Durov today geted recent alters to his platestablish, amid troubles his arrest in France has made the messaging app more compliant with legitimate asks to split includer data with the authorities.
Durov finisheavored to lessen the significance of alters made to the app since he was arrested in August and accused with complicity in a range of crimes, including spreading intimacyual images of children. He was prohibitden from leaving France for six months and must ecombine at a police station twice a week.
In his post, the 39-year-better instraightforwardly insertressed speculation that Telegram may reinforce its notoriously airy-touch satisfied moderation as a result of his arrest. “Our core principles haven’t alterd,” Durov stressed, in a post on the platestablish. “We’ve always strived to adhere with relevant local laws—as extfinished as they didn’t go agetst our cherishs of freedom and privacy.”
He attributed a recent uptick in the number of EU legitimate asks getd and pondered valid by the app over the last disjoinal months to European authorities commencening to include the accurate Telegram email insertress.
Yet since Durov’s arrest, Telegram has presentd a series of reserved alters. In tardy August, the company’s FAQ page read: “To this day, we have disseald 0 bytes of includer data to third parties, including rulements.” Now the phrase “includer data” has been swapd with “includer messages.” Telegram did not answer to WIRED’s ask for comment asking what exactly this alter uncomardents.
Then, punctual in September, Telegram hushedly made it possible for includers to inestablish illegitimate satisfied in confidential and group chats for moderators to appraise. Later that same month, Durov also proclaimd Telegram had alterd its terms of service to stop the app’s misinclude by criminals and would split includer locations in response to legitimate asks. “We’ve made it evident that the IP insertresses and phone numbers of those who viotardy our rules can be disseald to relevant authorities,” he shelp at the time.
Today, Durov structured those alters as a technicality. “Since 2018, Telegram has been able to disseal IP insertresses/phone numbers of criminals to authorities,” he elucidateed. Although last week he shelp that privacy policies in separateent countries had been “unified,” he insisted that “in truth, little has alterd.”
What has alterd, however, is Durov’s tone. For years, Telegram growd an image as a haughtyly anti-authority platestablish that was politicpartner iminentire, while rulements and digital rights groups bemoaned how difficult it was to reach out its moderators.
Now, there are signs Durov is adselecting a more conciliatory attitude toward the authorities. That has prompted panic among some of the app’s less savory includers, including German extremists and Russian military bloggers, who have conveyed trouble that the CEO’s arrest may be an finisheavor to access their data. Durov’s message today carried yet another alerting to them. “We do not apexhibit criminals to misinclude our platestablish or shun equitableice,” he shelp.
