The Australian cybersecurity regulatory agency announced on the 30th that it has filed a lawsuit against the instant messaging app Telegram, accusing it of failing to effectively deal with terrorist-promoting content on its platform.
The Australian eSafety Commission pointed out that, even after issuing an official notice to Telegram, the platform still did not remove videos involving executions by terrorist organizations and large-scale shooting incidents, so it decided to take legal action.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner Grant emphasized in a statement: “The content involved in this case is related to several extremely egregious extremist violent incidents in recent years, including footage related to the Christchurch, New Zealand (also referred to as ‘Christchurch’) and Buffalo, USA terrorist attacks... Even after clear warnings from the regulatory authorities, these illegal contents continued to circulate on the platform.”
The statement said that if Telegram is found in violation of Australian industry regulations and standards, it could face a maximum civil penalty of 54.6 million AUD (about 155 million MYR).
According to official data, Telegram has become one of the most downloaded applications in the world, with over 1 billion monthly active users. The platform was founded by Russian-born Durov, who left Russia in 2014 and relocated his place of residence and company headquarters to Dubai in 2017.
Russia Issues International Arrest Warrant for Durov
The Russian Federal Security Service issued a statement on the 29th, seeking the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Durov.
The statement said that Durov faces criminal charges for allegedly assisting terrorist activities and has been placed on the global wanted list.
The statement also noted that Telegram has been used by Ukrainian security agencies as a recruitment platform to incite Russian citizens to engage in sabotage activities, and that Durov has not deleted prohibited information on the platform.