“Telegram is still the privileged platform of pedocriminals.” In any case, this is what Commissioner Quentin Bévan, head of the Minors Office (Ofmin), who participated in a vast operation of dismantling a pedocrimse network.
In fact, after ten months of research, the organization arrested between Monday 19 and Thursday, May 22, 55 men suspected of belonging to an active pedocrimeter network. All officers through Messaging telegram. They exchanged messages there, and above all, they were linked to Pedocriminals “Extremely dangerous,” imprisoned since last summer.
Several action levers
And, if Quentin Bevan recognizes the progress in the cooperation of the platform with the researchers, considers that the telegram barely fills the minimum of its legal obligations “in this area.
“Since 2018, Telegram is fighting in several ways against Pedocrime: banishment based on digital content printing, dedicated moderation equipment, telephone assistance lines for NGOs and daily transparency reports on forbidden content, which can be verified,” he lists.
Historically, Telegram – that is not encrypted from beginning to end by default – He had committed to Do not reveal information In its users. As a result, the messaging quickly became the favorite platform of criminals, in the absence of moderation and real collaboration with the authorities. But since summer, the social network obviously operated with a size.
At the end of September, Pavel Durov, CEO of the Social Network under French justice Due to many moderation failures, he announced that the platform would make more efforts to collaborate with the authorities.
A “not fast enough” collaboration
Therefore, she is committed to communicate with authorities IP addresses, as well as telephone numbers, provided that the request for information comes from an independent judge, as established by law. Since then, applications have exploited.
According to Telegram’s report during the period from July to September 2024, the messaging has followed 210 applications made by the French judicial authorities against only four in the first quarter, then six in the second quarter. An increase of 5,150%.
Between January and March 2025, these France requests remained stable. In its latest transparency report, Telegram explains that you have communicated information of 668 IP/Telephone numbers, affecting 1,425 users.
Better collaboration with the authorities, therefore, but that remains insufficient. “Sometimes it is not fast enough, sometimes we have to wait several days a return, unlike other platforms,” says a BFMTV police source.
For his part, Telegram, who spoke with Tech & Co, explains this peak of applications for the fact that the authorities had simply taken into account “the appropriate communication channel” before the autumn of 2024. This channel was activated as part of the European regulation on digital services, the DSA.
Source: BFM TV
