Telegram is taking a major step to reduce child sexual abuse material (CSAM), in association with the International Watch Foundation (IWF), four months after the former's founder and executive director, Pavel Durov, was arrested. French authorities brought 12 charges against Durov in August, including complicity in “distributing, offering or making available pornographic images of minors, in an organized group” and “possessing pornographic images of minors.”
The IWF, based in the United Kingdom, works with social media platforms, technology companies, governments and more to prevent the spread of CSAM. Telegram's membership in the IWF gives you access to the organization's tools that block links to CSAM content and “non-photographic representations,” including ai-created images. It also provides Telegram with hashes of known CSAM content and any harmful content the organization detects. The IWF reports finding thousands of confirmed cases of CSAM on Telegram since 2022.
Telegram has previously refused to join any program that could help limit CSAM. In a statement, Telegram's head of press and media relations, Remi Vaughn, said the platform “removes hundreds of thousands of child abuse materials each month” through artificial intelligence reporting and moderation, hash matching and further. Although Vaughn admitted that the IWF's support will strengthen the company's ability to eliminate CSAM before it reaches anyone.
Telegram has taken other steps since Durov's arrest, announcing in September that it would hand over IP addresses and phone numbers in legal requests, something it has struggled with in the past. Durov must remain in France for the foreseeable future.
