In Brief
- The eSafety Commissioner has accused Telegram of failing to take down terrorist content on the app.
- Russia claims Ukrainian spies are using the app to recruit and co-ordinate terrorist attacks.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner has announced legal action against messaging app Telegram for its failure to remove terrorist content, just one day after Russia charged the app's founder with aiding Ukrainian spies to co-ordinate domestic terrorist attacks.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told reporters on Thursday that Telegram continued to host videos linked to the Christchurch mosque shootings and executions by the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, both illegal and restricted Class 1 content in Australia.
Grant said the app has "a fundamental responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent the hosting, sharing and amplification of this harmful material".
"When platforms are alerted to terrorist content, they must act."
Telegram, based in the United Arab Emirates, is one of the world's largest messaging platforms with more than one billion active users worldwide. It is not included in Australia's youth social media ban.
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Grant said her agency first began compliance talks with the digital platform in March 2024. Despite Telegram's engagement, Grant said the platform continued to host harmful content.
"We allege that this content remained publicly accessible on the service long after Telegram had been put on notice by user reports," she said.
The maximum penalty for non-compliance is $54.4 million; however, Grant told the press that the appropriate penalty was a "matter for the court".
In 2025, Telegram was fined $957,780 by the eSafety Commissioner for delays in reporting the steps the platform has taken to minimise terrorism and child abuse material.
Russian arrest warrant
Australia isn't the only country pursuing Telegram.
On Wednesday, Russia said it had charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity, alleging the app was being used by Ukrainian spies to organise attacks inside Russia.
In response, Telegram's official account on X posted an image of the Russian-born billionaire making an obscene gesture with his middle finger.
The charges, announced by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), marked the culmination of a long investigation against Dubai-based Durov and Telegram.
Russia has effectively throttled the service as part of a wider campaign to cut off access to foreign tech platforms and tighten control over the internet.
Russians can now access Telegram only via a virtual private network to encrypt traffic and conceal their location. Yet state bodies including the Kremlin and the defence ministry continue to post to it daily.
'A virtual battlefield'
The app has been described as a "virtual battlefield" in the war between Russia and Ukraine, where it is used by officials, soldiers and influential bloggers on both sides.
In statements, the FSB and the state Investigative Committee said a chatbot available on Telegram called "Daivinchik/Leo" had been used by Ukrainian special services to recruit young Russians to carry out sabotage and terrorist operations.
Daivinchik/Leo is a popular dating chatbot in Russia, where Tinder is no longer available. The statement said Ukrainian spies posing as young women were using it to contact and entrap Russians before coercing them into committing crimes.
The FSB said 46 Russians aged 12 to 22 had been arrested in the past year after being recruited in this way to carry out attacks on law enforcement officers or set fire to transport, energy, communications or financial infrastructure.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
The FSB statement said Durov was being placed on an international wanted list, but it did not specify what mechanism Russia would use to do this.
The global police organisation Interpol did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If Russia does request a Red Notice, however, the process is unlikely to be quick, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Dubai, where Durov lives, has friendly relations with Russia and growing ties in energy, business, and finance. But handing him over to Russia could risk damaging the emirate's image as an attractive hub for enterprise and technology.
Durov posted that he was in Georgia last week, but his current whereabouts are unclear.
— With additional reporting by the Reuters news agency.
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