Telegram blocks one million groups and channels per month – also with AI
Telegram has documented its successes against illegal content on a new moderation page. The service now also works with standard block lists.
(Image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock.com)
Since the CEO of the social network Telegram, Pawel Durow, was arrested in France in August on numerous charges, his service has said it is making efforts to better comply with legal requirements. This can be seen from a new website on the subject of content moderation, which Telegram recently launched. Among other things, Durow was accused of stonewalling in response to requests from the authorities, such as those for the deletion of illegal content, and is currently on bail.
An interactive graphic on the moderation page shows that the number of blocked groups and channels – Telegram does not break this down separately – skyrocketed at the end of August 2024. Since then, it has been at a higher level than before, in some cases with over 200,000 blocks per day. Durow himself also stated in a post on Telegram that his service blocks around one million groups and channels per month. The network's self-developed tools, which work with artificial intelligence among other things, are supposed to help with this. Durow did not explain exactly how these tools work. However, he did state that 10 million users per month would also be affected by blocks.
(Image:Â Telegram, Screenshot: heise online)
With NGOs against depictions of abuse
One focus of the blocks are depictions of child sexual abuse, so-called CSAM (child sexual abuse material). According to Telegram, it works with its own hash database. The service has also been working with other organizations since 2024, including the Internet Watch Foundation and other established CSAM campaigners such as the US NCMEC and the Canadian C3P. In total, around 42,000 pieces of content with abusive content were blocked by hashes from the participating organizations in 2024. The service also emphasizes on its moderation page that it has a "zero-tolerance policy" for such material.
Videos by heise
Telegram is equally cooperative in the fight against terrorist propaganda and incitement to violence. According to the network, over 131,000 "terrorism-related communities" were blocked in 2024. Telegram claims to have become more active in this area since 2022, and has also started working with the Arab organization Etidal this year.
(nie)
