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The controversial messaging app, Telegram, has agreed to work with an internationally recognised body to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is used by major online services to help them detect and remove CSAM, and prevent its spread. Telegram had repeatedly refused to engage with it or any similar scheme. But, four months after its founder Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris for Telegram's alleged failure to moderate extreme content, the platform has announced a U-turn.
The IWF has described Telegram's decision as “transformational” but warned it was the first step in a “much longer journey” for the app.
Telegram is used by around 950 million people worldwide and has previously positioned itself as an app focussed on its users' privacy rather than the policy norms prioritised by other global social media companies.
But reporting from a number of news organisations highlighted criminals using the app to advertise drugs as well as offer cybercrime and fraud services and, most recently, CSAM.
In August, its billionaire owner was detained at an airport north of Paris.
Mr Durov is accused of a failure to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud. French judges have barred the 40-year-old from leaving France pending further investigations.
The company maintains that his arrest is unfair, and that he should not be held liable for what users do on the platform.
Mr Durov has vowed to “turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise”.
The partnership with the IWF appears to be the latest step in that process.
The IWF is one of a few organisations in the world that is legally able to search for child sexual content to get it taken down. Its ever-evolving list of known abuse content is used by websites to detect and block matches to stop it spreading.
Telegram says that before becoming a member of IWF it removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of abuse material each month using its own systems. The IWF membership will strengthen its mechanisms, the company said.
