First France, now South Korea — Telegram’s legal troubles are only growing. Here’s why

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First France, now South Korea — Telegram’s legal troubles are only growing. Here’s why

Telegram logo displayed on a broken phone screen. Illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on August 27, 2024. 

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Following the recent arrest of its founder in France, Telegram is now facing potential legal troubles in South Korea.

The country’s chief police investigator has announced a preliminary

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in abetting **** *******, according to a report from the local Yonhap News Agency. 

This comes against the backdrop of South Korea’s efforts to tackle the spread of deepfake ************ that has been targeting young women, including teenagers, in the country.

The probe poses another major legal challenge to Telegram after its founder and chief executive, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on Aug. 24 for alleged offenses related to the messaging app. 

Parallels in the cases

Durov, the 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire, was arrested by French authorities following a preliminary investigation into Telegram launched on July 8. 

Similar to South Korea’s investigation, French authorities were probing the platform’s role in the distribution of pornographic images of minors, as well as facilitating organized ******, ***** trafficking and ******. 

Durov was reportedly accused of failing to mitigate such ********* activities on the platform. Telegram said in a

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that it abides by EU laws and that Durov had “nothing to hide.”

According to Yonhap’s report on Monday, Woo Jong-soo, head of the National Office of Investigation, drew connections between their case and the one in France and said there were plans to collaborate with their French counterparts and other international institutions. 

The investigation could be complicated by the fact that Telegram does not readily provide investigation data, such as account information, to any state investigative bodies, including those in the U.S., Woo reportedly said. 

Telegram’s refusal to share information with investigators when required by law has also been noted in the

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While Durov’s arrest has been seen as an unprecedented move, the platform has recently faced legal scrutiny in

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and

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as well over concerns surrounding ******** and harmful content.

Telegram troubles

While Telegram has argued that its content moderation practices are “

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,” certain features of the platform have made it the center of scrutiny globally.

By only requiring users to provide a phone number to register and offering the ability to hold end-to-end encrypted conversations through a “secret chats” feature, the app offers a high degree of anonymity. 

These anonymous features have long attracted illicit actors such as scammers and even extremist groups to the platform. Now, in South Korea, they are attracting distributors of deepfake *****. 

Deepfakes are videos, sounds, or images of a real person that have been digitally altered and manipulated. They have become increasingly prominent amid the emergence of generative AI technology. 

South Korean police are probing eight automated programs generating deepfake ************ for Telegram groups, along with chat rooms responsible for circulating such content, according to Yonhap’s report. 

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The investigations come amid increased pressure on authorities to respond to a growing number of

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detailing how Telegram groups, some as large as

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, have been used to share ********* exploitative deepfake images of female students from local universities, high schools, and even middle schools. 

This is not the first time Telegram has been at the center of such a scandal in South Korea. 

In 2020, South Korean authorities arrested a ringleader of

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and coerce women and children into sharing ********* explicit images of themselves. No legal action was taken against Telegram at the time.

In response to Durov’s arrest, Chris *****, consumer and tech analyst at GWI, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” that it was unclear how far authorities would be willing to go in regulating and cracking down on Telegram, though other messaging and social media apps could also come under scrutiny.

***** added that there ******** a tension between consumers’ ******* to have their freedom of speech protected and also government oversight to shield them from harmful content.

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#France #South #Korea #Telegrams #legal #troubles #growing #Heres

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