Apple temporarily kicks Telegram off of App Store for 'inappropriate' content [u]
In a surprise move, Apple has removed popular messaging apps Telegram and Telegram X from the App Store, reportedly because of problems with "inappropriate content" being distributed through them. [Updated with apps' return]
"We were alerted by Apple that inappropriate content was made available to our users and both apps were taken off the App Store," Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on Twitter. "Once we have protections in place we expect the apps to be back on the App Store."
It's unclear what content drew Apple's attention, since Telegram is a personal messaging service. It could be the company feels Telegram isn't doing enough to let users respond to objectionable material, which would be a violation of App Store policies.
Telegram has sometimes been accused of being a platform of choice for terrorists, since its support for end-to-end encryption blocks governments from snooping on chatter. In fact the service formed a special team of moderators in Indonesia to avoid being blocked by that country's government.
The platform has some 180 million active users worldwide, most of those outside the U.S.
Update: Both Telegram and Telegram X are once again available for download.
"We were alerted by Apple that inappropriate content was made available to our users and both apps were taken off the App Store," Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on Twitter. "Once we have protections in place we expect the apps to be back on the App Store."
It's unclear what content drew Apple's attention, since Telegram is a personal messaging service. It could be the company feels Telegram isn't doing enough to let users respond to objectionable material, which would be a violation of App Store policies.
Telegram has sometimes been accused of being a platform of choice for terrorists, since its support for end-to-end encryption blocks governments from snooping on chatter. In fact the service formed a special team of moderators in Indonesia to avoid being blocked by that country's government.
The platform has some 180 million active users worldwide, most of those outside the U.S.
Update: Both Telegram and Telegram X are once again available for download.
Comments
iMessages might be encrypted but its by no means private.
Have you ever synched iMessages to a desktop and was later surprised to find old messages on a Mac that you had deleted from your phone?
Have you ever poked around your disk with something like Disk Inventory to find a cache of old pictures you had sent with iMessages?
As for the terrorist reference, I imagine most have switched to Signal by now along with anyone else who has sensitive data to move around.
EDIT: Telegram X too.
So all is well then....
Did you deliberately misspell Tim Cook's name?
"The Telegram apps were taken down off the App Store because the App Store team was alerted to illegal content, specifically child pornography, in the apps. After verifying the existence of the illegal content the team took the apps down from the store, alerted the developer, and notified the proper authorities, including the NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).
The App Store team worked with the developer to have them remove this illegal content from the apps and ban the users who posted this horrible content. Only after it was verified that the developer had taken these actions and put in place more controls to keep this illegal activity from happening again were these apps reinstated on the App Store.
We will never allow illegal content to be distributed by apps in the App Store and we will take swift action whenever we learn of such activity. Most of all, we have zero tolerance for any activity that puts children at risk – child pornography is at the top of the list of what must never occur. It is evil, illegal, and immoral.
I hope you appreciate the importance of our actions to not distribute apps on the App Store while they contain illegal content and to take swift action against anyone and any app involved in content that puts children at risk."
Major kudos to Apple...
Courtesy 9to5