yesterday | 16:00

Telegram has begun to massively provide user data to US authorities

Photo:depositphotos.com/ rafapress

Tengrinews.kz – The bot of the popular social network and messenger Telegram – Transparency Reports has provided user data at the request of US authorities, according to 404 Media.

According to information received from Transparency Reports, from January 1 to September 30, 2024, Telegram complied with 14 requests from the United States to provide “for IP addresses and/or phone numbers,” which affected 108 users. However, in total, 900 requests were fulfilled in 2024, affecting 2253 users.

"Even though the data technically covers the entirety of 2024, the jump from a total of 108 affected users in October to 2253 as of now, indicates that the vast majority of fulfilled data requests were in the last quarter of 2024, showing a huge increase in the number of law enforcement requests that Telegram completed," the publication states.

Screenshot of the Transparency Reports bot report

It is noted that Telegram is especially popular among hackers, scammers, rapists, child abusers, and other criminals. The reason for this is not so much the security of messages (by default, Telegram messages are not end-to-end encrypted, and criminals rarely use this feature), but the social networking nature of the application.

"Instead, it is the app’s social network-like features that allow for massive channels and group chats where many hundreds or thousands of people can discover and communicate with one another easily, and the (until recently) correct perception that Telegram was unlikely to hand over user data to the authorities even when asked to do so," the publication states.

At the same time, in his Telegram channel, Pavel Durov responded to the statement by Mark Zuckerberg, who had previously announced that Meta would abandon fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram. He wrote that he was proud that Telegram supported freedom of speech long before it became politically safe.

"Our values don't depend on US electoral cycles. Today, other platforms are announcing they'll now have less censorship. But the real test of their newly discovered values will come once the political winds change again. It's easy to say you support something when you risk nothing,” Durov emphasized.

Earlier, an investigation into Telegram was launched after Pavel Durov was detained in August by French intelligence services.

Durov, 39, was charged with several counts related to failing to stop the spread of extremist and illegal content on the popular messenger.

On August 28, he was released from custody in Paris on bail of 5 million euros. Durov was banned from leaving France and ordered to report to the police twice a week.

He later commented for the first time on his arrest in France.

It later became known that he had agreed to work with law enforcement agencies and had begun to pass on information that could be used to identify Telegram users. It also became known that Pavel Durov's brother was being forced to come to France to testify.

Durov Pavel United States social network USA