"Claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports. We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster."

In a message published on Thursday, September 5, the first since his arrest and indictment by the French justice system, Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, claims he doesn't understand. Why is the French justice system accusing him of complicity with people who have used his platform to disseminate illegal content? Telegram moderates content, he swears on it, and it moderates a great deal of it.

Yet all you have to do is open the app, which claims 950 million users worldwide, and perform a basic search to find all kinds of illegal products and services, on a scale far beyond activity on other platforms. Durov implicitly admitted as much, in another message published late on Friday, stating that his teams were going to "turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise."

Stolen cars, counterfeit bills and real crooks

The Telegram teams – about whom nothing is known, including their number and location – will likely have their work cut out. A few minutes on the application is all it takes to find channels selling a Magnum 44 with ammunition (€3,000, to be picked up in Lyon) as well as counterfeit bills (€100 for 35 counterfeit €20 bills, "all tested before being sold, that's why we're the best!"). In just three clicks, you can access a channel with over 7,000 subscribers openly offering stolen cars for sale. A BMW i8 is listed for €12,000, less than 10% of its retail price – fake license plates included.

Discreet delivery guaranteed

Need a fake vehicle registration to go with your stolen car? There's a Telegram channel for that too: "HQ [high quality] printing, 100% matching font, hologram," said the administrator, with photos to back it up. He also offers fake ID cards, diplomas and residence permits for a few hundred euros, with discreet delivery guaranteed to pick-up points across France.

Of course, some of these offers are also likely to be scams: There's no guarantee that orders placed in these anonymous stores, where payment is often made in cryptocurrencies or through obscure payment services, will be fulfilled. After all, Telegram is also the platform par excellence for scams, particularly fake investments and shady cryptoassets. In fact, the vast majority of ads on the app link to accounts promoting dubious investments, such as the Trading Crypto France group, whose ads have been prominent on Telegram for months.

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