After years of persistent rejection, the social network Telegram joined the Foundation for Internet (Internet Watch Foundation, IWF) to help combat the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the Internet.
Telegram has repeatedly refused to join the IWF or any similar initiative, but four months after its founder, billionaire Pavel Durov, was arrested in Paris over Telegram's alleged failure to moderate extreme content, the platform has announced a U-turn.
The IWF described Telegram's decision as "transformational", but warned that it was the first step in a "much longer journey", reports the BBC.
"By joining the IWF, Telegram can begin deploying our leading tools to ensure that CSAM cannot be shared on their service," said Derek Ray-Hill, Interim CEO of the IWF.
The Dark Web in your pocket
Telegram is used by about 950 million people worldwide and has previously positioned itself as an application focused on the privacy of its users, rather than the norms that are the priorities of other global social media.
Criminals began to use it to a large extent, so they advertised drugs on Telegram, offered cybercrime and fraud services, and until recently, CSAM.
That's why Telegram is also labeled as "Dark web in your pocket".
When Durov was detained in August, he was accused of refusing to cooperate with the authorities for the fight against drug trafficking, CSAM and Internet fraud, and the court prohibited him from leaving France until the investigation was completed.
The Telegram company claims that his arrest is unfair and that it should not be held responsible for what users do on the platform.
Telegram Promises
However, Telegram has since announced a number of changes to the way it works.
Telegram has promised to publish the IP addresses and phone numbers of violators and hand them over to the police, and to publish regular transparency reports on how much content has been removed, which is standard practice.
Durov also promised at the time that Telegram's moderation would become such that it would "move from the realm of criticism to the realm of praise," so the partnership with the IWF seems to be the latest step in that process.
The IWF is one of the few organizations in the world that has the legal ability to search CSAM in order to remove such content from the Internet.
CSAM's list of known content, which is constantly updated by the IWF, is used by websites to detect and block such content.
Telegram stated that even before becoming a member of the IWF, it removed "hundreds of thousands of pieces of CSAM every month using its own systems."
IWF membership, Telegram concluded, will only strengthen existing mechanisms.
Especially popular in Russia, Ukraine and Iran
Telegram is an application for exchanging fully encrypted messages, which means that only the sender and receiver of the message can read it, as are the applications Vocap (WhatsApp) and Signal.
However, most communication is done using standard encryption, which raises the question of how secure such communication is from hacking and interception.
Telegram owner Pavel Durov, who was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, has citizenship of Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Telegram is especially popular in Russia, Ukraine and countries of the former Soviet Union, as well as in Iran.
