Encrypted platform Telegram hit with $1m fine

Encrypted messaging platform Telegram has been fined almost $1m for failing to meet a deadline to address terrorist, extremist violence and child sex exploitation material on its servers.

Telegram has been hit with a fine of almost $1m by Australia’s eSafety commissioner. Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News

Encrypted messaging platform Telegram has been hit with a fine of almost $1m by Australia’s eSafety commissioner for failing to meet a notice deadline about steps the platform had taken to address terrorist, extremist violence and child sex exploitation material on its servers.

In March 2024, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told tech platforms including Meta, Google, Reddit, X and Telegram to answer questions about what measures they had put in place to tackle terrorist and violent extremist material on their platforms.

Ms Inman Grant said Telegram had missed its May 6 deadline and only responded almost half a year afterwards, on October 13.

The eSafety commissioner has issued an infringement notice for $957,780 to the encrypted messaging platform.

“If we want accountability from the tech industry we need much greater transparency,” Ms Inman Grant said. “These powers give us a look under the hood at just how these platforms are dealing, or not dealing, with a range of serious and egregious online harms which affect Australians.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Gran. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

“Telegram took 160 days to provide information that was asked in the reporting notice and providing this information so late has obstructed eSafety from delivering its functions under the Online Safety Act for almost half a year. It was open to eSafety to give an infringement notice of a higher amount, but we think this amount reflects the significant delay in Telegram providing eSafety with transparency information while also taking into account the subsequent improvement in Telegram’s engagement after the notice period had ended.”

Ms Inman Grant said Telegram now had a month to request the withdrawal of the notice, pay the fine, or to seek an extension. She said the information provided by various tech platforms would soon be summarised and released in a transparency report.

She said that report would not contain information from mogul Elon Musk’s X because it had sought administrative review on the notice.

A Telegram spokesperson said the company intended to appeal the notice.

“Telegram fully responded to all of eSafety’s questions last year, with no outstanding issues,” they said. “The unfair and disproportionate penalty concerns only the response timeframe, and we intend to appeal.”

Telegram is one of the leading end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms, alongside Signal and Meta’s WhatsApp.

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov – who was born in Russia and now holds duel French and Emirati citizenships – was sensationally arrested by French police in the second half of 2024 soon after his private plane landed at Le Bourget airport.

Authorities laid charges against him including complicity in enabling the distribution of child exploitation material and drug trafficking, and he was barred from leaving France.

At the time, Telegram said it was “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform”.

Australian authorities have also recently dialled up the pressure against encrypted platforms, with Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation chief Mike Burgess and Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw warning of extremists and criminals being shielded by those encryptions.