For the first time, Telegram, which has long been known as a site for trading content about child sexual abuse, has agreed to work with a bigger global watch organization to stop this kind of stuff.
The cooperation with Telegram was revealed Tuesday by the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation, which keeps a database of known abuse imagery and offers digital companies tools to automatically report and delete it.
After being arrested in August as part of a broader investigation that included claims of the platform’s involvement in other unlawful activities, including the distribution of graphic photographs depicting the abuse of kids, Telegram’s mysterious co-founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, is still free on bail in France.
According to a news release from the IWF, the new relationship would enable the organization to efficiently search Telegram for precise matches of child sexual abuse content in its databases and block it immediately. Similar systems will also detect abuse pictures produced by artificial intelligence and prevent links to websites known to host such content.
Prior to Durov’s arrest, Dubai-based Telegram had a distinct reputation for being openly antagonistic to moderation and court judgments from countries for it to either comply with orders to remove content or turn over information on users accused of committing crimes.
That strategy has irritated child safety organizations even if it has helped it win over some groups that claim to support free speech, such as the far right in the United States.
The three biggest organizations that collaborate with law enforcement and tech platforms globally—the IWF, the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection—told NBC News this year that Telegram is unique in that it has refused for years to even reply to their attempts to flag and remove images of child sexual abuse, despite the company’s claims that it removes channels that host child sexual abuse material on a daily basis.
Although Durov’s lawsuit is still underway, it seems to have convinced him to take action to increase platform safety and confidence. He declared that he will greatly enhance Telegram moderation less than two weeks following his incarceration.
A request for comment from Telegram was not answered. In the press announcement, Remi Vaughn, the company’s head of media relations, stated that the collaboration would further guarantee Telegram’s ability to successfully remove child abuse content before it reaches any users.
That means Telegram can start implementing our industry-leading solutions to assist ensure that this content cannot be shared on the platform, according to Derek Ray-Hill, interim CEO of the IWF. This is a significant time, and we will be collaborating closely with Telegram to ensure that this dedication is maintained and spreads throughout the industry.
According to Ray-Hill, this is a transformative beginning to a much longer journey.
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