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After years of resisting outside pressure to moderate content, Telegram has agreed to work with child safety scheme Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to crackdown on child sexual abuse imagery from being spread on the platform.
The messaging software will use IWF’s tools and data in addition to its own to detect, disrupt, remove, and block the imagery.
On Wednesday (December 4) Telegram was officially accepted as a member into the child safety scheme which acts as the UK’s front line against child sexual abuse imagery online. It’s one of only a handful of non-law enforcement bodies worldwide that has the legal power to pro-actively seek out and remove images and videos.
.@telegram joins the IWF in cracking down on child sexual abuse imagery on the platform.
Telegram will deploy new tools to proactively prevent child sexual abuse imagery from being spread in public parts of its platform.https://t.co/wGEjzGFsee
— Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) (@IWFhotline) December 4, 2024
The child safety scheme has in the past stated it had confirmed thousands of reports of child sexual abuse imagery on Telegram since 2022. When the IWF reported the content to Telegram, it was removed by the platform.
Going forward, the platform will use a range of new services including “taking IWF “hashes”, unique digital fingerprints of millions of known child sexual abuse images and videos, to instantly spot when this criminal content is being shared in public parts of the site.”
When found, these will then be blocked and prevented.
Telegram and child safety scheme collaboration is ‘first step on a much longer journey’
In a press release, Remi Vaughn Head of Press and Media Relations at Telegram said: “Telegram removes hundreds of thousands of child abuse materials each month, relying on reports and proactive moderation which includes AI, machine learning and hash-matching.
“The IWF’s datasets and tools will strengthen the mechanisms Telegram has in place to protect its public platform – and further ensure that Telegram can continue to effectively delete child abuse materials before they can reach any users.”
This comes after Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, had made headlines earlier on in the year after being detained in Paris. Prosecutors claimed the platform has failed to take action against harmful and criminal content on the site.
Interim CEO at the IWF, Derek Ray-Hill, described the new collaborative effort as being a “transformational first step on a much longer journey.
“We look forward to seeing what further steps we can take together to create a world in which the spread of online sexual abuse material is virtually impossible and, when it does happen, we are able to remove it very quickly and permanently…”
Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram
