Telegram is full of AI-generated and real photos of child abuse – but is that enough to arrest the CEO?

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In recent days, following the arrest of CEO and founder Pavel Durov, attention has turned to the darker parts of his Telegram platformFor years, Telegram has been home to some of the worst content imaginable. Just this week, the Department of Justice charged Army Private Seth Herrera with possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and Use of unspecified AI tools to generate images of childrenAccording to the criminal complaint filed against Herrera, “he created his own public Telegram group to store his CSAM and sent himself video files depicting screaming children being raped.”

Law enforcement agencies are now finding examples of Telegram groups in which AI-generated CSAM are shared on the platformsaid investigators ForbesA current federal child abuse investigator, who was not authorized to speak officially, said there were “entire chat rooms dedicated exclusively to “nudity” or “fakes” where someone posts the non-exploitative picture of the child so that someone else in the group can make them 'naked.'” Forbes As previously reported, such Telegram “nudifier” bots are widespread in the app and were marketed on YouTube before the site removed them.

Jim Cole, a recently retired DHS Homeland Security Investigator (HSI) investigator who deals with child exploitation, said platforms like Telegram have long “prioritized their bottom line over the safety of their most vulnerable users,” adding that Durov’s arrest was significant. “It sends a strong message that this kind of negligence will not be tolerated,” he told Forbes. “I bet it makes others in the tech world a little nervous.”

CSAM is present on almost all other major Internet platforms, from Facebook to Instagram to X. The difference with Telegram, however, is that it accused of failing to respond to law enforcement requests for user dataor effectively and proactively monitor its platform for such content. Unlike Meta, TikTok and many of the largest social sites, Telegram did not inform the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children when moderators encounter CSAM. Even Mega, an encrypted storage service once run by the notoriously anti-authoritarian Kim Dotcom, regularly assists police investigations by providing data and clues.

In a search warrant issued last year, the HSI Division of the DHS summed it up: “Based on the experience of the HSI Telegram does not respond to US law enforcement proceedings.” And on Telegram’s website it says: “To this day We have shared 0 bytes of user data with third partiesincluding governments.”

However, Telegram does occasionally respond to calls for help, according to the same HSI warrant. “Although Telegram does not generally cooperate with law enforcement, it does provide an email address for abuse cases. In HSI's experience, it will sometimes end groups that deal with child pornography as soon as these groups are reported on Telegram.”

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn said the app “actively moderates harmful content on its platform, including child abuse material. Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring of public parts of the platform, AI tools, and user reports to remove content that violates Telegram's terms of service.” According to the app's own information, in August alone Telegram has removed more than 45,000 groups and channels related to child abuse.

Was Telegram's response to law enforcement's demands, or lack thereof, sufficient grounds to charge Durov with a crime? As it stands, no. He has not been charged yet, but questions remain about possible complicity in a number of serious crimesincluding complicity in the “organised distribution, offering or provision of pornographic images of minors”.

However, the arrest has revealed a divide in the technology world. While people like Elon Musk and more libertarian-minded people have rushed to support Durov, saying he is merely the creator of a software platform and not a criminal dealing in CSAM or drugs, others in the area of ​​civil rights are more cautiousand waits to see what accusations, if any, come from France. He has lost “some natural allies” in the community by Attack signalan app that, unlike Telegram, is end-to-end encrypted, says John Scott-Railton, a digital rights activist and researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab project. And unlike Signal, because it holds the keys to user data, it can moderate far more, Scott-Railton adds. With nearly a billion users, it certainly has a lot of data to sift through, and Telegram's critics say much of it could be useful in criminal investigations.

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