Telegram under fire for repeatedly refusing to join child protection initiatives

The BBC has discovered that Telegram, the messaging app whose CEO has been arrested in France, refuses to participate in international initiatives aimed at identifying and removing child abuse content online.

Telegram is not affiliated with either the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) or the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), both of which collaborate with most online platforms to detect, report, and eliminate such content.

This news comes as the founder and CEO of Telegram, which has over 950 million registered users, remains under investigation in France.

Billionaire Pavel Durov has been detained on charges related to insufficient moderation on the platform.

According to officials, the 39-year-old is accused of failing to cooperate with law enforcement regarding drug trafficking, child sexual content, and fraud.

Telegram claims it proactively moderates harmful content on its platform, including child abuse material, and asserts that its moderation is "within industry standards and constantly improving."

However, unlike other social networks, Telegram has not signed up for programs like NCMEC’s CyberTipline, which includes over 1,600 internet companies.

The majority of reports on child sexual abuse material come from major tech companies and social networks like Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (X), Snapchat, and WhatsApp.

The BBC understands that NCMEC has repeatedly asked Telegram to join the effort to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but the requests have been ignored.

Telegram also declines to collaborate with the Internet Watch Foundation, the UK’s counterpart to NCMEC.

An IWF spokesperson stated: "Despite attempts to proactively engage with Telegram over the last year, they are not members of the IWF and do not take any of our services to block, prevent, and disrupt the sharing of child sexual abuse imagery."

By not participating in IWF or NCMEC, Telegram cannot proactively identify, remove, or block confirmed CSAM, which is categorized and added to lists compiled by these organizations.

Telegram is also not involved in the TakeItDown program, which focuses on removing so-called revenge porn.

Snap, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Pornhub, and OnlyFans are all members of this initiative, which uses a hash list to scan for images and videos on their public or unencrypted platforms.