Pavel Durov's Telegram Forked Over Data To US Law Enforcement — 'Affected Users: 108'

Pavel Durov’s Telegram, the widely-used social media platform, has acknowledged its compliance with multiple U.S. law enforcement data requests this year.

What Happened: Following the arrest of Durov by French police in August, Telegram has expanded its privacy policy to encompass data requests linked to a broader spectrum of criminal activities, reported 404 Media.

The data was revealed in a transparency report delivered by Telegram’s transparency bot on Wednesday.

The report stated, “Fulfilled requests from the United States of America for IP address and/or phone number: 14. Affected users: 108.”

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Durov also said that in Brazil, data was disclosed for 75 legal requests in the first quarter, 63 in the second quarter, and 65 in the third quarter of 2024.

In India, Telegram’s largest market, the company complied with 2461 legal requests in the first quarter, 2151 in the next, and 2380 in the third quarter.

Some of these data requests were made before Durov’s arrest, which was partly due to Telegram’s refusal to provide user data in a child abuse investigation, the report noted.

Following the arrest, Telegram updated its privacy policy to state that it may disclose user IP addresses and phone numbers to relevant authorities in cases involving criminal activities that violate Telegram’s Terms of Service.

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Why It Matters: This development comes amid growing concerns about privacy violations and the increasing pressure on tech companies to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

Last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that his company was pressured by top officials from the Joe Biden administration to restrict specific content on its platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zuckerberg also indicated that he would push back against similar pressures in the future.

U.S. authorities and law enforcement agencies demand user data from major tech companies twice as often as their EU counterparts, reported Forbes in August 2024.

Data from Surfshark shows that global government requests for user information from Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft surged almost eightfold from 2013 to 2022.

In 2022 alone, the number of requests rose from 1.6 million to 2.2 million, reflecting an increase of approximately 38%.

Image Courtesy: Shutterstock.com

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.