Telegram CEO Issues Statement After Apple Briefly Removed App From Store

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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said Apple briefly removed the instant messaging app from its store because a “user had planted illegal porn in a public chat.”

“Telegram was restored within hours. But I want to explain what happened — to warn other app developers and help protect online communities from similar attacks. Because Telegram quickly removes illegal content from public groups using all kinds of moderation tools, the attacker had to resort to a technical trick. He inserted AI-modified illegal content by editing an old message in an active group chat. As a result the content was effectively hidden from the group’s members, preventing them from seeing/reporting it,” Durov explained.

“The attacker was a takedown extortionist: someone who demands ransom from group owners in exchange for not targeting their communities. These extortionists use automated accounts to plant illegal content in public groups and then report it directly to Apple, attempting to trigger the removal of legitimate communities whose owners refused to pay them. From a practical standpoint, illegal pornographic content in Telegram’s public groups is not a systemic problem. Our moderation is effective. The fact that attackers must resort to backdated, effectively invisible content and other technical tricks proves this,” he continued.

Durov offered two important lessons for app developers and online communities:

  • “Extortionists have found a way to manipulate Apple into overreacting. Apple removed Telegram from the App Store before contacting us. This creates a potential systemic risk for every mobile app that hosts user-generated content. If an app used by more than a billion people can be removed from the App Store without prior warning, any app can be.”
  • “The tactics used by takedown extortionists are evolving, putting communities across social platforms at risk. Telegram has extensive experience identifying the tricks used by coordinated reporting gangs and protecting legitimate communities (even when doing so risks our own app being temporarily removed from the App Store). Other platforms may not be equally prepared.”

Reuters has more:

The incident follows a similar suspension ‌in 2018, when Apple temporarily pulled Telegram for material the app’s founder Pavel Durov called “inappropriate content” at the time, only to be restored after Telegram beefed up safeguards.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the recent brief removal, saying ​its review found content that violated guidelines prohibiting child sexual abuse material.

“The app was ​subsequently restored after the developer promptly removed the content and banned the user ⁠who posted it,” the spokesperson added.

The app was removed and restored on the same day, ​after Telegram took action.

Telegram, which has more than a billion monthly active users, says it has ​a zero-tolerance policy for material on child sexual abuse, blocking nearly 338,000 groups and channels over such items this year.

“I’m sure this stance will be applied equally to all other apps in the store, in the future, ​right? Apple,” Telegram posted on X in response to a user who shared the Apple ​statement.

“reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated 🍎,” Telegram’s official X account posted.

“silence, mortals. the founder has spoken,” it posted after Durov’s statement.

Forbes shared further:

Even though the app was restored after a short ban, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of the gaming company Epic Games called out Apple’s handling of the matter. Sweeney, who brought a high-profile antitrust case against Apple and has been a prominent critic of its 30% App Store fee, wrote: “Apple’s App Store desperately needs competition worldwide. Apple capriciously removes a vital communication and privacy tool from availability to a billion users, and sadly this is business as usual.” He added: “Apple has stated they removed the app from availability to a billion users because a Telegram user posted something horrible and illegal…Such arbitrary policy enforcement, by a monopoly gatekeeper, creates a perfect storm of fear and acquiescence by developers who are victims of Apple’s monopoly.”

The post Telegram CEO Issues Statement After Apple Briefly Removed App From Store appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

IN the summer of 2019, I was seated in the wine cellar of a walled Medieval town high above the Dordogne Valley of France, not far from Sarlat-la-Canéda, making phone calls, writing reports. I have given this story in other places and it appears as though you’re about to hear it again. Rob Skiba is a name you that you might be familiar with. Though he had made a name for himself as a Nephilim researcher, more recently Rob had taken a dive into the deep end of the pool via flat earth research. The recorded interviews I conducted between he and Rick Hummer, a fellow flat earth investigator and close friend of his, was published while still occupying that very wine cellar. Read all about it. Chicago Is Not a Mirage.

Word quickly spread. Within a few short weeks, dozens of flat earth researchers began accepting my invite for a private interview, if not a series of interviews. From a 17th-century tower built by King Louis XIV, and with a stunning view of the Alps, I sat down with Robbie Davidson, founder of the Flat Earth International Conferences, conducting multiple sessions. While staying in Dumfries, Scotland, David Weiss agreed to take part in the interviews, as did Bob Knodel of Globebusters. There were others. But when I asked the interviewees to discuss the moments that shaped their lives, among the many PSYOPs, false flag attacks, and hoaxes that were discussed, only these men committed commentary to the false 9/11 narrative.

The resulting recordings ballooned into The Unexpected Cosmology, a book which became a website and was even intended as an anthology. And of course, the following discourse was originally a chapter. It was Walt Disney who stated, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” Those sentiments remain applicable here as well. American Sensationalism: The 9/11 Interviews was always intended to be expanded upon with the inclusion of new researchers. So I’m sorry to say the project became stagnant during the Covid-19 psychodrama. I took a break to tackle other projects. We lost Rob Skiba. Rob offered hours of private conversation regarding his life but we never got around to the big one. 9/11. It was in the cards. Sadly, Bob Knodel died soon afterwards. Voices are being squeezed from an entire generation. Gnosis passes with them.

In the aftermath, the FE community became fractured. People began going their separate ways. Robbie Davidson, among a noted few others who were interviewed for the project, got up and left the movement altogether. It is not my intent to erase his or the contributions of others if only brief. They came, they went, their testimonies remain.

The original vision may have hit roadblocks but it is not forgotten. I expanded this paper a few years later to include testimony from author Pauly Hart, a dear friend of mine. I had wanted to continue that trend every year thereafter but you know how it goes. For the 25th anniversary of the attack I have redirected my efforts to its first large scale expansion, including Andrew Hoy and Darrin Geisinger into the mix. Perhaps others will lend their experiences to the recorder in time.

The following is their report.

Read the 9/11 Interviews

Watch the Interviews