Telegram to Work With UK Child Safety Group to Scan Content for Sexual Abuse Material

In this photo illustration, the Telegram logo is displayed on a number of screens in London on Aug. 26, 2024. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Telegram has agreed to deploy tools from an internet watchdog to prevent child sexual abuse imagery from being spread on its platform.

On Dec. 4, the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) announced that the social media platform is using the foundation’s tools to detect, disrupt, remove, and block child sexual abuse imagery.

Telegram will now use a range of IWF services, including the unique digital fingerprints of millions of known child sexual abuse images and videos (CSAM), to instantly spot when this content is being shared.

It will also deploy tools to block “non-photographic” depictions of CSAM, including known AI imagery and links to web pages known to harbor such material.

Telegram

The IWF has previously stated it had confirmed thousands of reports of CSAM imagery on Telegram since 2022, including category A imagery, the most severe category.

When the IWF reported this content to Telegram, it was removed by the platform.

Telegram is an app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats, and “channels” that can involve hundreds of people.

Unlike Meta’s WhatsApp, which has a group limit of 1,024, Telegram’s group chats allow up to 200,000 people.

Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France last August and charged with a series of criminal offenses.

Among the accusations was that he was allowing Telegram to be used for CSAM and drug trafficking and that the company had refused to cooperate with criminal investigators.

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov appears at an event in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Aug. 1, 2017. Tatan Syuflana/AP Photo

Russia-born Durov, writing on his Telegram account on Sept. 5, said: “The claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day.

“We have urgent hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.”

Telegram has to comply with UK online safety legislation that kicked in this year.

The UK’s Online Safety Act places a duty on social media platforms for the content they host, including CSAM.

The legislation imposes legal duties on big tech companies and service providers, which are overseen by regulator Ofcom.

If social media platforms do not comply with these rules, Ofcom can fine them up to 18 million pounds sterling ($22.8 million) or 10 percent of their global annual revenue, whichever is greater—meaning fines handed down to the biggest platforms could reach “billions of pounds.”

‘Horror’

Earlier this year, IWF and other advocacy groups claimed that their outreach to Telegram about CSAM on the platform was largely “ignored.”

However on Dec. 4, IWF interim CEO Derek Ray-Hill said that Telegram’s involvement was “a transformational first step on a much longer journey.”

Social media companies Meta and X are IWF members.

“Child sexual abuse imagery is a horror that blights our world wherever it exists,” Ray-Hill said.

“The children in these images and videos matter. I want to be able to say to every single victim that we will stop at nothing to prevent the images and videos of their suffering being spread online.”

Remi Vaughn, head of press and media relations at Telegram, said: “Telegram removes hundreds of thousands of child abuse materials each month, relying on reports and proactive moderation which includes AI, machine learning, and hash-matching.

“The IWF’s datasets and tools will strengthen the mechanisms Telegram has in place to protect its public platform—and further ensure that Telegram can continue to effectively delete child abuse materials before they can reach any users.”

Chris Summers contributed to this report.