Australia sues Telegram for not removing 'terrorist content'

[Oshosondy]

The recent in was Pavel Durov arrest warrant by Russia, now followed by Australia's online safety regulator, the eSafety Commissioner said videos of terrorist executions and mass shootings weren't removed from Telegram after they were reported. Telegram facing a lawsuit

Telegram is facing a possible AU$54.6 million ($38 million, €33 million) fine in Australia as a regulator said on Thursday the messaging platform failed to remove terrorist content despite warnings.

https://www.dw.com/en/australia-telegram-faces-legal-action-over-failure-to-remove-terrorist-content/a-78167487

I hope this will not have effect on Gram.

[Accardo]

This is not good for telegram, two countries having strong criminal charges against the platform, pertaining to allowing criminals exploit telegram for mass killing, cyber fraud, and attacks on Russia, and as well failing to delete videos of beheadings by ISIS. These charges are all tied to criminal activities coming from nations that would work cross functionally to penalize the platform. Nothing is happening to telegram for now, since they're not guilty until tried in court, and the cases would linger for sometimes as usual, until resolved.

If similar allegations continuously erupt regarding telegram, the platform will be in serious danger, you know this is not the first time telegram is getting accused of indulging in criminal activities.

[Localhostspeed]

This is not good for telegram, two countries having strong criminal charges against the platform, pertaining to allowing criminals exploit telegram for mass killing, cyber fraud, and attacks on Russia, and as well failing to delete videos of beheadings by ISIS. These charges are all tied to criminal activities coming from nations that would work cross functionally to penalize the platform. Nothing is happening to telegram for now, since they're not guilty until tried in court, and the cases would linger for sometimes as usual, until resolved.

If similar allegations continuously erupt regarding telegram, the platform will be in serious danger, you know this is not the first time telegram is getting accused of indulging in criminal activities.

What do you expect from Durov? He should cry because he decided to make Telegram public for everyone. Sometimes I see these things as paid campaigns, he was last Arrested and detained for not complaining with their law, they wanted him to do a back door specially for them and he refused and now these two countries. He left some years ago because of these thing and now they have arranged another thing to get him arrested but until proven guilty.

I don't like the way some government think they have power over everyone, these allegations maybe true or not but what are the chances that it's right. Anyone can formulate lies or form evidence to implicate people, this is not like other apps. I don't think if it's under any international law to make an owners changes an app to fit how they want it, if the government does not want telegram the least they could do is banned it from the country completely. Period!

[Slow death]

Telegram is facing a possible AU$54.6 million ($38 million, €33 million) fine in Australia as a regulator said on Thursday the messaging platform failed to remove terrorist content despite warnings.

From what I understand, the case is still in court, the process could drag on for many years because it will have to go through many judicial instances. Now, if found guilty in all instances, then the company has money to pay. This doesn't surprise me; two months ago they pursued X for combating child abuse, and X was fined US$650,000. This law which ones are they using in the case of Telegram began in 2019, according to this article:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-04/facebook-youtube-social-media-laws-rushed-and-flawed-critics-say/10965812

It's clear they created this law to place certain limits on social media, and from what I see, it's not about persecuting Telegram, but rather about complying with a law that has existed for years and is very clear. Telegram should carefully read the laws of each country and operate accordingly. Regarding accusations coming from Russia, to me it's clearly persecution. Russia killed many rich people who probably disagreed with the direction the president is taking the country.

[coin-investor]

Telegram is facing a possible AU$54.6 million ($38 million, €33 million) fine in Australia as a regulator said on Thursday the messaging platform failed to remove terrorist content despite warnings.

https://www.dw.com/en/australia-telegram-faces-legal-action-over-failure-to-remove-terrorist-content/a-78167487

I hope this will not have effect on Gram.

It depends on the court decision; Telegram stated that

Telegram denied the allegations and said it would contest the case in court, adding that it had blocked thousands of extremist communities in 2026.

The problem with Telegram is the lack of moderation and verification; scammers and terrorists can easily get on it and spread their dubious activities. Proof of this is that I still receive unwanted dubious messages from what I perceive are scammers.

If the decision favors the Australian, then it will have a bad effect on Gram, so Gram holders should get updates on this case and other cases facing Telegram and its founder.

[asriloni]

When Durove jailed by france, GRAM was still running properly because there was a huge team who was running it. So the news from Rusia and Australia won't affect the existence of gram.

But, weird to see how Rusia is doing pivot to give a sanction to the Durov just because they can't spy on his telegram app, and it's impossible for them to catch him because he's now living in Dubai.

Beside that Australia's accusation is worth to ignore because even if telegram gets fined, they can easily pay that. So it has no impact to Gram too.

[Accardo]

I don't like the way some government think they have power over everyone, these allegations maybe true or not but what are the chances that it's right. Anyone can formulate lies or form evidence to implicate people, this is not like other apps. I don't think if it's under any international law to make an owners changes an app to fit how they want it, if the government does not want telegram the least they could do is banned it from the country completely. Period!

Self interest comes first for most governmental bodies, telegram is open and hitherto the social platform with low restrictions on the level of user access. It's unexpected of Putin to turn against Darov, he now sees telegram as a threat, because he assumes Ukraine leverages on the platform's high level of user access to firmly target his territory. Why now? He wasn't talking down on telegram at the start or in the middle of the war when France captured and detained Darov, in 2024, remember, he and other Russian authorities were by him, and demanded for his freedom, what is the fundamental change to his judgement on the platform that wasn't going on in the past? Currently, telegram is banned in Russia, and VPN access is as well aggressively targeted to further restrict citizens.

[Curious T]

I don't like the way some government think they have power over everyone, these allegations maybe true or not but what are the chances that it's right. Anyone can formulate lies or form evidence to implicate people, this is not like other apps. I don't think if it's under any international law to make an owners changes an app to fit how they want it, if the government does not want telegram the least they could do is banned it from the country completely. Period!

I get your point, but even Durov in his interview did not deny that the site is being used by terrorists. I guess that is the price you have to pay for privacy. I understand Durov's POV, but there should be a compromise, but to what extent will that compromise be? At what point would he be allowed to intervene, and at what point would other people who are simply fighting for their rights be termed "terrorists" by their governments?

It's unexpected of Putin to turn against Darov, he now sees telegram as a threat, because he assumes Ukraine leverages on the platform's high level of user access to firmly target his territory. Why now? He wasn't talking down on telegram at the start or in the middle of the war when France captured and detained Darov, in 2024, remember, he and other Russian authorities were by him, and demanded for his freedom, what is the fundamental change to his judgement on the platform that wasn't going on in the past? Currently, telegram is banned in Russia, and VPN access is as well aggressively targeted to further restrict citizens.

Putin has always been against Durov and his social network. In fact, Telegram was created because of this. The reason Durov fled Russia was that he wouldn't comply with Russia's demand to hand over data of Ukrainian protesters and to block opposition groups on VKontakte (a social network that was like Facebook). he sold his stake and fled. It was after this that he created Telegram.

[DurakCrypto]

Telegram and TON are legally and structurally separate — TON Foundation isn't owned or controlled by Telegram anymore, and hasn't been since the SEC case forced that split. Content moderation lawsuits against the messaging app don't touch the blockchain's validators, its token, or its network operation directly.

The real exposure would be indirect: if regulatory pressure pushes Telegram to restrict or shut down Mini Apps as a category, or if it damages Telegram's user base broadly, that could soften TON's biggest distribution channel. But that's a different risk than "Telegram gets sued so GRAM is in danger" — the chain itself keeps running regardless of what happens to the app.

[$crypto$]

Pavel Durov was targeted by two countries just for disobeying the government over the content of terrorism? The Telegram messaging application is indeed associated with many issues, including that there are certain groups, some even say cyber groups and other money laundering.

For me Telegram is good messaging, what makes it complete are the scammers who continue to spam in many groups and also DMs.

Although two countries have issued arrest warrants, if Durov is arrested then the Telegram will not be closed.

[jossiel]

There's more to this IMO. But if Australia has asked Telegram to remove those contents, they should have because telegram is no longer just a messaging app and they're now more than an open book that everyone can look at.

Details are even posted on Pavel Durov's own Telegram account and he posted this thing. Now the interesting part, let's see on where it goes because IIRC he has also faced something such as this before.

[nelson4lov]

So far, anytime any country have an issue with telegram and chooses to sue them is because they try to exert some level of control and censorship but failed. Australia isn't the only country to sue them recently. Even Russia sued them recently because all their attempts to get telegram to bend the knee failed. It's going to be interesting if some countries realizes the only way they can disrupt telegram is to restrict their citizens from using the service completely

[shinratensei_]

Pavel Durov was targeted by two countries just for disobeying the government over the content of terrorism? The Telegram messaging application is indeed associated with many issues, including that there are certain groups, some even say cyber groups and other money laundering.

For me Telegram is good messaging, what makes it complete are the scammers who continue to spam in many groups and also DMs.

Although two countries have issued arrest warrants, if Durov is arrested then the Telegram will not be closed.

3 to be precise right now, France, Russia, and Australia without counting several other countries that are filing complaint, etc.
This man can't catch a break, everybody around the world seems to target him.

I wonder what kind of compromise Meta made to be able to operate the same thing on larger scale and didn't get the same backlash Telegram is having.
I'm thinking maybe telegram will follow whatsapp's path of government compliance eventually with all these pushbacks.

[MArsland]

So far, anytime any country have an issue with telegram and chooses to sue them is because they try to exert some level of control and censorship but failed. Australia isn't the only country to sue them recently. Even Russia sued them recently because all their attempts to get telegram to bend the knee failed. It's going to be interesting if some countries realizes the only way they can disrupt telegram is to restrict their citizens from using the service completely

They basically made several cases for the sake of being able to suppress and control telegram. Durov continued to be pressured from all sides because he gave freedom to telegram users. On the one hand, the government wants to gain access so that it can expand communication control for reasons of national security. On the one hand, we know that freedom of expression and privacy are increasingly difficult to obtain.

[Accardo]

Putin has always been against Durov and his social network. In fact, Telegram was created because of this. The reason Durov fled Russia was that he wouldn't comply with Russia's demand to hand over data of Ukrainian protesters and to block opposition groups on VKontakte (a social network that was like Facebook). he sold his stake and fled. It was after this that he created Telegram.

That was in 2014 when he chose to hand over VK and leave Russia regarding issues relating to the Euromaid protest, the complications here is that the Russian military and state officials made use of telegram for communications, which was why they moved head first to intercept his arrest in France two years ago. While all this was going on, the allegations placed on telegram today was just as the same as what France was Clamoring for when Russia said let him go. The question here is, are the Russian officials no longer scared of losing details relating to their national security to an unsafe hand, for starting this conflict with Durov?