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CNN
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Messaging platform Telegram is making some new concessions regarding security and user privacy after its founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last month.

Durov was arrested and questioned by French prosecutors on suspicion of criminal activity on the platform, including gang dealings and human trafficking, as well as the company’s alleged refusal to hand over data relevant to the investigation. He was later released from police custody with bail set at $5.56 million while the investigation continues.

The investigation sparked a debate about free speech and criminal activity online, but the authorities’ concerns were hardly surprising. The app – which has more than 950 million users thanks largely to encryption technology and promises of privacy – has been criticized for years for being popular with shady internet characters and criminals, including drug traffickers, money launderers and extremists, including white supremacists and terrorist groups such as ISIS.

After his arrest, Telegram said Durov had “nothing to hide” and that it was “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform.” Two weeks after his arrest, Durov acknowledged that the “abrupt increase” in the number of users of the app had led to growth problems that made it easier for criminals to abuse the platform.

Now, Telegram is making some changes to curb criminal activity on the platform, Durov said in a post on the app on Monday. The most important of these: Telegram has updated its terms of service and privacy policy, indicating that it will share the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate its rules with authorities in response to “valid legal requests.” The platform says it will disclose all user data shared with law enforcement in quarterly transparency reports.

“Search on Telegram is more powerful than on other messaging apps because it allows users to find public channels and bots,” Durov wrote. “Unfortunately, this feature has been abused by people who have violated our terms of service to sell illegal goods.”

He added that a team of moderators used artificial intelligence to identify and remove “problematic content” from the public search function. “If you still find something unsafe or illegal in Telegram search, please report it to us via @SearchReport,” Durov wrote.

Telegram did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on how much content was removed and whether any channels or accounts were suspended as a result.

“Telegram search is designed to find friends and discover news, not to promote illegal goods,” Durov said.

While the changes could lead to less criminal activity in the platform’s public areas, they will not necessarily stop the illegal use of private, end-to-end encrypted chats, where Telegram says it has “no way to decrypt the actual information” from the conversations.

It is unclear what impact the sharing of certain user data with law enforcement will have on the ongoing French investigation.

Telegram said it has previously taken action against content that violated its rules, including restricting access to several channels linked to or operated by Hamas while the militant group is at war with Israel, and removing calls for violence after reports emerged that the app was being used to organize far-right, anti-immigrant unrest in the UK.