The Telegram messaging platform is no stranger to controversy, whether it be related to the app’s founder’s ongoing stoush with Russian authorities or its use by many criminals and hate groups.
However, it’s now going to be taken to court by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner over the platform’s alleged failure to take action and remove violent content shared by terrorists and their supporters.
“This case concerns content linked to some of the most notorious acts of known extremist violence in recent history, including material associated with the Christchurch and Buffalo terror attacks. We allege that this content remained accessible on the service long after Telegram had been put on notice,” eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a 30 July statement.
“With the painful aftermath of the Bondi terror attack still fresh in the minds of all Australians, and ASIO’s assessment that Australia’s terrorism threat level remains ‘probable’, it is more important than ever that digital platforms meet their obligations to protect the community.”
In the course of its investigation, eSafety found Telegram had failed to comply with its obligations under the Online Safety Act’s Relevant Electronic Services Standard in several areas:
- Failing to remove publicly posted pro-terror material and other unlawful material after becoming aware of it. Specifically, Telegram failed to remove material, such as videos of terrorist executions, after reports by Australian end users were made, with material remaining available for up to three weeks.
- Failing to minimise the risk of future breaches, such as by removing the relevant accounts, channels, and groups after becoming aware of pro-terror material and other unlawful material.
- Failing to detect known pro-terror material such as the live-streamed Christchurch mosque shooting from 2019, and the Buffalo mass shooting in New York from May 2022, with such material having been uploaded to Telegram nearly three months prior to its removal.
- Failing to effectively disrupt and deter the distribution of pro-terror material.
- Failing to have Terms of Service that prohibited users from accessing or distributing pro-terror material on all parts of Telegram.
- Failing to inform complainants of the outcome of their complaints about unlawful material.
Inman Grant said the continuing proliferation of “pro-terror material” posed the risk of normalising such content, causing harm to Australians, and even radicalisation and recruitment of at-risk persons.
“ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has recently stated that online radicalisation is playing an increasing role in ASIO investigations, and ‘instead of being radicalised by associates in the real world, individuals are often being radicalised by strangers online’ and specifically warned about the risks on Telegram,” Inman Grant said.
“This should concern all of us. We’re talking about the most seriously harmful online material, and Australian law requires services across the online ecosystem to take responsibility for the role they play in allowing this material to be disseminated, including by enforcing their own terms of service.
“Telegram reports having more than a billion users worldwide and is a widely used service in Australia, visited by Australians on average 1.5 million times a month. It provides groups for up to 200,000 users, as well as channels for wider ‘broadcasts’ with no maximum limit, and as such, Telegram has a responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent the hosting, sharing, amplification and monetisation of this harmful material.
“No platform is above the law, and this action demonstrates that eSafety will not hesitate to use the full range of its powers to protect Australians.”
Australia’s Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, welcomed the move, saying the country “has no tolerance for big tech failing to prevent, detect and remove pro-terror material from their services”.
“This is the first enforcement action in the Federal Court taken by the eSafety Commissioner under the Albanese government’s Unlawful Material Codes and Standards, which came into effect a year ago,” Wells said.
“Telegram needs to explain to Australian users – and the Federal Court – why it has allegedly not complied with Australian laws.”
Dr Rob Nicholls, a Senior Research Associate of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sydney University, was similarly pleased by eSafety's move, but noted that preventing the uploading of such material was difficult challenge.
"The central issue is not whether any platform can prevent every harmful upload – that would be unrealistic. Rather, the question is whether platforms have credible systems to detect known terrorist material, respond promptly to reports, disrupt the accounts and channels through which it spreads, and prevent repeated redistribution," Dr Nicholls said.
"If the allegations are established, the concern is not simply that harmful content appeared, but that it was allowed to proliferate through inadequate governance."
Telegram could face fines of up to $54.6 million.
eSafety’s move comes at the same time Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, is facing pro-terrorism charges laid by Russian authorities.
Russia’s Federal Security Service has accused the platform of failing to remove various chats, channels, and bots used by “Ukrainian intelligence agencies, terrorist and extremist organisations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass murder, and cyber fraud”.
If convicted, Durov could be sentenced to life in prison.
Durov currently resides in Dubai.
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David Hollingworth
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.