WASHINGTON, DC (August 26, 2024) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) said that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who was arrested in France, should be held accountable for the rampant criminality that occurs on Telegram and called on the U.S. Department of Justice to also investigate the platform. Telegram was named to the 2024 Dirty Dozen List for serving as a haven for criminal communities around the world. Sexual torture rings, sextortion gangs, deepfake bots, and more all thrive on the platform at an alarming scale.
“It is past time that outlaw internet oligarchs are reigned in from profiting from the abuse of our children. Telegram is rampant with child sexual abuse material and the grooming of minors; it facilitates multiple forms of image-based sexual abuse, including deepfake pornography, nonconsensual distribution of sexually explicit material, and sexual extortion. Telegram is so dangerous and such a threat to so many people that we believe it should be shut down, making it even more urgent and critical that the Telegram CEO be held accountable for this rampant criminality. The only question now is why is the U.S. Department of Justice not engaged?” said Benjamin Bull, general counsel, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
In a February 2024 study, Tech Platforms Used by Online Child Sexual Abuse Offenders, Telegram was noted as the #1 most popular messaging app used to “search for, view, and share CSAM” by almost half of the offender respondents (46% Telegram, 37% WhatsApp).Â
“Telegram’s glaringly inadequate and/or nonexistent policies, coupled with an adamant refusal to moderate content, directly facilitate and exacerbate sexual abuse and exploitation on the platform worldwide. Durov designed Telegram to be almost impossible to investigate or have content taken down, even for law enforcement requests – all the more reason why Telegram needs to be investigated. Facilitating criminal activity is not free speech,” Bull added.
Normally, when an entity is added to the Dirty Dozen List, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation offers recommendations for improvement and invites constructive dialogue to develop solutions for making a platform free from sexual abuse and exploitation. However, NCOSE has no confidence that Telegram cares to engage with any entity about safety matters, nor has the platform shown any substantive effort to-date to stem the rampant crime on the platform. Read NCOSE’s letter to Telegram CEO here.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography. https://endsexualexploitation.org/Â
