Telegram CEO Pavel Durov says an extortionist planted child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in a Telegram public chat in order to manipulate Apple into temporarily removing the app from the App Store. Durov says Apple removed Telegram on Monday night, about 40 minutes, before contacting Telegram, and that this sequence created what he describes as a “systemic risk” for apps hosting user-generated content. He argues the case is an edge scenario rather than evidence of a broad moderation failure on Telegram.
According to Durov, the attacker used a “technical trick” to evade Telegram’s moderation tools by adding CSAM content to an existing message in an active group chat. Durov says group members could not see the backdated content to report it, allowing the material to go unnoticed until Apple’s review.
Apple’s action followed a content review that found CSAM violating App Store guidelines. Apple says Telegram removed the content and banned the user, after which the app was reinstated. Apple has not publicly commented on Durov’s characterization of the incident as “takedown extortionism.”
