It's one of the most serious accusations facing Pavel Durov: Among the many charges for which the Telegram CEO has been placed under formal investigation in France on August 28 is "complicity in organized group distribution of images of minors of a child pornographic nature." Durov is suspected of having knowingly allowed groups dedicated to child pornography content to flourish on his platform, and of having refused to respond to requisitions from the French judiciary in pedophilia cases. According to Politico, which cites documents from the French proceedings, it was a request to identify a suspected child pornographer that went unanswered that prompted the investigation − since widely extended to other potential crimes − that led to Durov's arrest.
When it comes to combating child pornography, Telegram is a special case. Despite its 900 million claimed users, it is the only major digital company that does not collaborate with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), an American NGO that centralizes the world's largest database of such content. This organization works in partnership with law enforcement agencies to track down victims. It also co-manages a system that facilitates the automatic detection of child pornography content so that social media platforms can block its distribution.
Yet Telegram doesn't share any information with NCMEC: The company doesn't pass on any reports to the organization and doesn't respond to its requests for information.
"Telegram is truly in a league of their own as far as their lack of content moderation or even interest in preventing child sexual exploitation activity on their platform," said John Shehan, vice president of the NGO's Exploited Children Division & International Engagement, in an interview with NBC News. Shehan believes that Durov's arrest sends a positive signal.
Telegram's rules prohibit child pornography content, and the company asserts that it "actively moderates harmful content, on its platform, including child abuse content." In Germany, Telegram's failure to cooperate with the police and judicial authorities led to a major standoff between the company and the interior ministry in 2022, which threatened to ban the messaging service in the country.
Popular tool for illegal content
At the time, as revealed by the weekly magazine Spiegel, Telegram ended up passing information on suspected child criminals to German investigators after a discussion between senior German officials and Durov himself. While, as Spiegel explains, Telegram has not since passed on any user information to the German authorities, it has nonetheless complied with some of their requests, notably concerning the deletion of illegal groups.
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