By Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI, June 23 (Reuters) – An Indian investigation found that Telegram is being used extensively to share child sexual abuse material and perpetrate financial scams, according to a report by the government, which added it was “proactively monitoring” groups on the messaging app.
The 35-page report by the Home Ministry’s Cybercrime Coordination Centre was submitted in court as part of the government’s successful defence of a one-week ban of the app after a question paper to the country’s medical school exam was allegedly leaked.
In that case, Telegram was accused of not doing enough to prevent misinformation in its channels — a charge it denies. The ban was lifted on Tuesday, though a feature which allows the editing of old messages will not be able to be used until June 30.
The Indian government said in the report it is concerned about Telegram’s privacy features, which allow users to interact without needing to reveal a phone number, making identity detection difficult.
That is not possible on WhatsApp, the most popular chat app in India with over 500 million users.
“Cyber criminals use Telegram to access closed groups/channels … (India) is proactively monitoring such Telegram groups and channels,” said the report, which was not public but was reviewed by Reuters.
Telegram and the Home Ministry did not respond to Reuters queries about the report.
TELEGRAM MUCH CRITICISED, HIGHLY SCRUTINISED
The scrutiny of the app in India, which is its biggest market with more than 150 million users, is only the latest of several investigations.
France in 2024 launched a probe into activity by organised crime on the app. That same year, Telegram was at the centre of an uproar in South Korea over sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of women that were often found in the app’s chatrooms, and in Spain, its use was temporarily suspended over copyright concerns.
In April, Britain’s communications regulator launched an investigation into Telegram after evidence suggested child sexual abuse material was being shared on the platform. Telegram has denied the allegations and said since 2018 it has “virtually eliminated” the public spread of child sexual abuse material on its platform through detection algorithms.
CONTINUED COMPLAINTS OF ILLEGAL CONTENT, CYBERFRAUD
The Indian government’s report, dated June 10, contained screenshots from Telegram groups depicting fake job advertisements, material that showed the sexual abuse of children or their exploitation, as well as a pirated version of the blockbuster Bollywood spy movie Dhurandhar.
In court, Telegram argued that an internal review had found that illegal content represented less than 0.1% of content on its platform.
But according to the government’s report, it has received more than 688,000 complaints about Telegram as a medium for cyber fraud since 2023, causing an estimated loss of some $750 million to Indian citizens.
The government report also said that multiple Telegram channels, groups, and user handles were reported by citizens for online harassment and disseminating child sexual abuse content. There were 1,556 complaints linked to the use of Telegram between January and May this year, it said.
(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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