Earlier last week, Telegram’s ultra-secure messaging apps were taken down from the App Store out of the blue without an explanation. The takedown coincided with the release of the company’s newest official client, Telegram X, but that had nothing to with its sudden disappearance.
Instead, it was later found that the messaging apps were kicked from the iOS App Store for hosting ‘inappropriate content’ according to Apple’s explanation to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. We’ve now finally learned the real reason (or what the inappropriate content was) for the removal of such a popular messaging app from the App Store.
According to an official interaction between Apple’s senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller and a Telegram user, reported by 9to5Mac, the messaging app was removed from the Apple App Store because it was found to be serving ‘child pornography’ to its users. In the official email, Schiller says,
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).
This is definitely one of the most vile practices and the distribution of inappropriate content that includes minors has been floating around the deep dirges of the dark web. Most tech giants already have safeguards against hosting such content on their social platforms, but Telegram seems to have skipped on the same.
While the Russian giant should’ve been prepared to prevent the flow of such content, it’s good to see Apple take a firm and just stance against such an atrocious act. We’ll be updating the story as we learn more about the protections added to the Telegram app in upcoming updates.
