Telegram has updated the help section, but there will be no moderation of personal correspondence

The Telegram administration has made changes to the contents of the help section, giving inattentive citizens reason to conclude that the platform will now moderate user correspondence. In fact, personal and group chats of the messenger remained private, its administration claims.

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Previously, the Frequently Asked Questions page in the section for filing complaints about illegal materials noted that “all Telegram chats and group chats are private for their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.” This section currently reads: “All Telegram apps have ‘Report’ buttons that allow you to report illegal content to our moderators – with just a few taps.” An email address for contact and brief instructions are also provided to speed up the administration’s response.

But this does not mean that the platform has changed its policy and is now going to moderate user correspondence. The phrase about the private nature of personal and group chats has moved to the next section. It clarifies that, unlike personal and group correspondence, sets of stickers, channels and bots contain information available to an unlimited number of users. Earlier, the head of Telegram, Pavel Durov, said that the administration of the messenger has to maintain a balance between the security and privacy of users.