Telegram: From Messenger to Repository of Criminal Activity
An investigation by The New York Times revealed the scale of illegal activity on the platform.
The New York Times published the results of the investigation, describing Telegram as "a global channeling of criminal activity, toxic content, disinformation, sexual violence and racism." During the four-month study, journalists analyzed more than 3.2 million messages from 16 thousand channels of the messenger, revealing the widespread spread of illegal and extremist activity on the platform.
According to the publication, Telegram offers tools that allow criminals and scammers to organize their activities on a significant scale and evade the attention of the authorities. Despite the obvious flourishing of illegal activity, the administration of the platform did not take sufficient action to suppress it. Experts from The New York Times have identified 1500 channels related to white supremacist propaganda, which unite almost a million users around the world. Dozens of channels also advertised weapons, and some of them were seen to be active in international trade. On 22 channels with more than 70 thousand subscribers, illegal substances were advertised with delivery to more than 20 countries.
The New York Police Department's deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, Rebecca Weiner, said that "Telegram has become the most popular gathering place for malicious actors." According to her, if someone is plotting a crime, he is likely to choose this platform for his actions.
Telegram, according to The New York Times, does not pay enough attention to requests from law enforcement agencies. According to former employees of the company, the mailbox for such appeals is rarely checked, which greatly complicates investigations. At the same time, other major social networks, such as YouTube and TikTok, have entire divisions that handle such requests, and thousands of moderators who monitor potentially dangerous content.
In fact, only Apple and Google, which can remove Telegram from their app stores, have been able to successfully push the platform to remove and limit the spread of malicious content, analysts, government officials and tech executives note. governments have sometimes turned to tech giants for help to force Telegram to act.
After The New York Times sent Telegram a list of questions, Pavel Durov, the founder and head of the company, made the first comments. He stated that the notion of Telegram as "some kind of anarchic paradise" is not true, stressing that the company deletes millions of malicious posts and channels every day. According to Durov, the huge amount of prohibited content is explained by the fact that the platform is going through "growing pains". He noted that he personally took on the task of significantly improving the moderation system and combating illegal activity on the platform.
In a statement to The New York Times, Telegram stressed that 99.999% of the platform's users are law-abiding citizens, and despite the work still to be done, the company is actively improving its features and moderation mechanisms to better control content.
Experts believe that one of the key reasons for Telegram's appeal to extremists and criminals is its unique features. Unlike competitors like WhatsApp, which limit the size of groups and access to public channels, Telegram allows you to create channels and super groups. By 2019, the group administrator could manage city-wide chat groups with up to 200 thousand users, which attracts both legitimate users and those looking for a platform for illegal activities.
