Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said on Monday that the messaging platform had removed more “problematic content,” weeks after he was arrested in France on charges of failing to take action against criminals using the app.
Telegram’s search function “has been abused by people who violated our terms of service to sell illegal goods,” Durov told the 13 million subscribers to his personal news channel.
“Over the past few weeks,” employees have been combing Telegram using artificial intelligence to ensure that “any problematic content we identified in the search is no longer accessible,” he said.
Durov added that the platform had updated its terms of service and privacy policy to clarify that it would share violators’ data – including internet IP addresses and phone numbers – with authorities “in response to valid legal requests.”
“We will not allow malicious actors to compromise the integrity of our platform for nearly a billion users,” he said.
Durov was arrested on August 24 as he arrived on a private jet at Le Bourget airport outside Paris.
After days of interrogation, he was accused of several counts of failing to curb extremist and terrorist content and released on bail of five million euros ($5.6 million).
During the investigation, he must remain in France and report to the police twice a week.
Durov, who holds Russian, French and United Arab Emirates passports, initially criticised his arrest but has since announced steps that appear to give in to Paris’ demands.
On September 6, he said Telegram would change its “People Nearby” feature to show users “legitimate businesses” instead of “bots and scammers.”
“This year, we set out to transform moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism to an area of praise,” he said at the time.
Durov is an enigmatic figure who rarely speaks in public. His fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $15.5 billion. Yet he extols the virtues of an ascetic life, which includes ice baths and abstinence from alcohol and coffee.
bur-tgb/js
