Telegram boss speaks out and promises to make the messenger more secure

Two weeks after his arrest in France, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced that he wants to do more to combat the machinations of criminals on the platform. The reason for the plight is the "sudden increase" in the number of users on Telegram, he explained.

The French authorities accuse Durov of distributing child pornography and dealing in drugs on his messaging platform. The company has refused to cooperate with the investigators. In Germany, cooperation with German authorities varies greatly.

Durov now appears to be changing his strategy. In a statement, he admits that it has not always been easy for the authorities to make contact. He also wants to make Telegram more secure. He admitted that the increase in user numbers to 950 million had made it easy for criminals to abuse the platform. He had previously claimed that he had nothing to hide and that the accusations were absurd.

He had "made it a personal goal to ensure that we significantly improve things in this regard. We have already started this process internally and I will give you more details on our progress shortly," Durov explained. He hopes that "the events in August" will lead to a more secure and stronger Telegram.

However, Durov also criticized the arrest, saying that the French authorities could have made contact in a different way.

Changes to the FAQ

Shortly after Durov's announcement, Telegram's FAQ page was changed, as the US magazine The Verge noticed. While the FAQ on how to delete illegal content on the platform stated that private chats were protected from moderation requests, Telegram now refers to the option of reporting illegal content. However, this function is not new, but has been included in the apps for some time. We have not yet found any options for direct messages, but WhatsApp also offers this option for encrypted chats – at least for the last five messages.

(mack)