Popular texting platform Telegram has just made a major update, albeit silently.
The app is giving users the chance to report any kind of abuse carried out through private chats so that moderators can take a look and make a decision. This huge update was recently done to the company’s website under the FAQ page.
As you can expect, the privacy change is major and comes after the app's founder Pavel Durov was arrested by French police over allegations of crimes conducted by third parties.
Today, the popular platform has a user base that goes above and beyond the 10 billion subscriber mark. Now the app is famous for its lack of moderation and a lot of shady things going unnoticed, despite having a team of moderators in place.
This is especially true when it comes down to limited supervision of user chats. In the past, the FAQ page mentioned about how private chats had protection from any moderation requests. These were considered private property for the user and hence the admin confirmed they didn’t process the requests linked to them.
But during the later hours of Thursday night, the app did revamp the page and make a major change where users can benefit from new Report buttons. This lets them flag any kind of illegal content for the team of moderators.
With the help of some taps, any users can report abuse. The news is also interesting because yesterday, the app said it got rid of its People Nearby functionality. It spoke about bots and scammers overwhelming the feature. Similarly, it disabled the chance to upload new media to the app which was a popular blogging tool. Again, the reason cited was misuse by anonymous actors.
The company also shed light on a new email ID for automatic removal requests. This means users can add links to content that needs immediate attention from the moderator's team.
For now, it’s not clear if this change affects the app’s change to generate replies for requests about the police and other law enforcement agencies. We’ve seen the app discuss in the past how it cooperates with legal orders to share data regarding users.
One app spokesperson went as far as to confirm how users might always report any kind of messages from the group to the moderator's team. It’s like a forwarding message scheme. However, such changes to the FAQ section only make you realize how simple reporting content on the app has become.
Whether or not the new changes are due to the founder’s arrest in France, who is linked to investigations about explicit imagery, drug trafficking, crypto scams - we’ll never know. However, experts do feel it could be the case.
Right after the arrest, the founder did publish through his own Telegram channel that this act was unlawful. He felt charging the CEO for crimes carried out by third parties was totally wrong while criticizing French authorities.
He also argued about the steps taken by the country to tackle the matter. According to Durov, legal action against the service or platform is the right way to approach such matters and not arrest the founder or management.
He similarly argued that 99% of the crimes being alleged have nothing to do with the platform’s users. Hence, he also warned that if any entrepreneur was being held responsible for possible abuse of their offerings, then no innovator would ever curate new technology or products. What do you think?
Image: DIW-Aigen
Read next: Will TikTok Be Banned In The US? The Current Political Wars Are Making Things Complicated
The app is giving users the chance to report any kind of abuse carried out through private chats so that moderators can take a look and make a decision. This huge update was recently done to the company’s website under the FAQ page.
As you can expect, the privacy change is major and comes after the app's founder Pavel Durov was arrested by French police over allegations of crimes conducted by third parties.
Today, the popular platform has a user base that goes above and beyond the 10 billion subscriber mark. Now the app is famous for its lack of moderation and a lot of shady things going unnoticed, despite having a team of moderators in place.
This is especially true when it comes down to limited supervision of user chats. In the past, the FAQ page mentioned about how private chats had protection from any moderation requests. These were considered private property for the user and hence the admin confirmed they didn’t process the requests linked to them.
But during the later hours of Thursday night, the app did revamp the page and make a major change where users can benefit from new Report buttons. This lets them flag any kind of illegal content for the team of moderators.
With the help of some taps, any users can report abuse. The news is also interesting because yesterday, the app said it got rid of its People Nearby functionality. It spoke about bots and scammers overwhelming the feature. Similarly, it disabled the chance to upload new media to the app which was a popular blogging tool. Again, the reason cited was misuse by anonymous actors.
The company also shed light on a new email ID for automatic removal requests. This means users can add links to content that needs immediate attention from the moderator's team.
For now, it’s not clear if this change affects the app’s change to generate replies for requests about the police and other law enforcement agencies. We’ve seen the app discuss in the past how it cooperates with legal orders to share data regarding users.
One app spokesperson went as far as to confirm how users might always report any kind of messages from the group to the moderator's team. It’s like a forwarding message scheme. However, such changes to the FAQ section only make you realize how simple reporting content on the app has become.
Whether or not the new changes are due to the founder’s arrest in France, who is linked to investigations about explicit imagery, drug trafficking, crypto scams - we’ll never know. However, experts do feel it could be the case.
Right after the arrest, the founder did publish through his own Telegram channel that this act was unlawful. He felt charging the CEO for crimes carried out by third parties was totally wrong while criticizing French authorities.
He also argued about the steps taken by the country to tackle the matter. According to Durov, legal action against the service or platform is the right way to approach such matters and not arrest the founder or management.
He similarly argued that 99% of the crimes being alleged have nothing to do with the platform’s users. Hence, he also warned that if any entrepreneur was being held responsible for possible abuse of their offerings, then no innovator would ever curate new technology or products. What do you think?
Read next: Will TikTok Be Banned In The US? The Current Political Wars Are Making Things Complicated
