Durov Responds To Criticism, Overhauls Telegram Moderation And Privacy Policies

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced plans to enhance moderation on the platform and has removed certain features that were being exploited for illegal purposes.

These updates were revealed last week, shortly after Durov criticised his recent arrest by French authorities, calling it "misguided".

In a post on X, he said the messaging app was “committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise”.

Durov announced changes including the removal of Telegram's "people nearby" feature due to issues with bots and scammers, replacing it with "businesses nearby" for legitimate enterprises.

Additionally, media uploads were disabled on the blogging tool Telegraph, as it was being exploited by anonymous users.

The Verge also reported that Telegram has removed mentions from its FAQ page about private chats being protected, along with the previous statement that moderation requests for those chats would not be processed.