Telegram CEO Pavel Durov pledges to 'significantly improve' the site, days after arrest

Pavel Durov, the co-founder and CEO of Telegram, has pledged to “significantly improve” the moderation of criminal activity on his messaging app, 12 days after he was arrested in France.

Durov wrote on his Telegram channel Thursday that he is aware of criticism about the app’s lack of oversight, and that changes are in the works. He also criticized his areest.

“We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon,” Durov posted on his Telegram channel, the first public comment he has made since his arrest.

“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” he said. “Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”

Paris prosecutors charged Durov, a multi-billionaire who is well known in technology circles, with a variety of crimes last week in relation to an investigation into Telegram, including complicity in administering an online platform permitting illicit transactions by an organized group and complicity in offenses related to child sexual abuse material.

Founded in 2013, Telegram has generally been associated with a reluctance to do much moderation or to work with governments. The site’s terms of service say there is no way to report illegal activity in private chats. In a rare interview with the right-wing personality Tucker Carlson in April, Durov bragged that he often ignored government requests.

Outside organizations that work with tech platforms to assist in moderation have similarly found it challenging to work with the app. 

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The three primary groups that work with governments around the world to take down child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online have told NBC News that Telegram is unique in completely ignoring their outreach.

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Telegram claims to take down public channels publishing CSAM each day, using a combination of moderators and artificial intelligence.

Durov seemed to concede in his post Thursday that his policy of not abiding government requests for allegedly illegal activity on the platform may not be tenable.

“Even the fact that authorities could be confused by where to send requests is something that we should improve,” he wrote.