Telegram announces new measures to help track potential criminals using its messaging app.
Just a few weeks after the arrest of its CEO in France, the Telegram application announces that it is working on a feature to better track potential users wanted by the justice system.
The official website and the Telegram application have made a small update within their general conditions with the following mention: “If Telegram receives a request from judicial authorities confirming that a suspect in a criminal case is breaking the rules of using Telegram, the application will be able to perform a legal analysis of the said request and issue the IP address and number of phone of the suspect to the competent authorities.”
In other words, the various judicial authorities will now be able to send Telegram a request to obtain information on potential criminals who use the application. The company then undertakes to communicate the IP address of the suspect as well as his personal telephone number in order to help the competent authorities.
This new rule should therefore not affect a large majority of users. The 404Media site noted in particular that this change only impacts criminals suspected of terrorist acts. Other offences are therefore not affected.
This announcement is a first step for Telegram, which has committed to fighting more actively against criminal networks that use the application. A fact that has often been singled out as the messaging service had become a haven of choice for all sorts of operations and discussions on the edge of legality and with very little moderation.