Telegram Briefly Removed From App Store

[MacRumors]

Apple briefly removed Telegram from the App Store on Monday night after a review found content that violated its guidelines against child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but restored the app a short while later, according to Reuters.

Reports of the removal began circulating around 9:30 p.m. ET on Monday, with searches for Telegram on the App Store returning nothing and the app's direct listing showing a "page can't be found" error. Existing users were not affected and could keep using the app throughout, and Telegram remained available on the Mac App Store. The app returned to the App Store roughly 40 minutes later, around 10:10 p.m. ET. Apple confirmed the reason for the takedown in a statement:

We briefly removed Telegram from the App Store after our review found content that violates our strict guidelines prohibiting child sexual abuse material. The app was subsequently restored after the developer promptly removed the content and banned the user who posted it.

Telegram said the action stemmed from a single account. "Apple reported one user sharing CSAM, who was immediately banned," the company said, adding that it has removed more than 337,900 groups and channels related to CSAM in 2026, on top of 29,640 removals in 2025 following reports from groups including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated 🍎— Telegram Messenger (@telegram) August 4, 2026​

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, a longtime critic of App Store policy amid his own antitrust fight with Apple, argued on X that the takedown showed the need for more competition in app distribution. "Apple's App Store desperately needs competition worldwide," Sweeney wrote. "Apple capriciously removes a vital communication and privacy tool from availability to a billion users, and sadly this is business as usual." He went on to question the consistency of the standard Apple applied, noting the company "did not elaborate on how, if that is the standard for app removal, any communications app could operate at scale, including iMessage."

Monday's action echoes a February 2018 removal, when Apple pulled both Telegram and its Telegram X client over what founder Pavel Durov described at the time as "inappropriate content," restoring the apps only after Telegram added extra safeguards.

Article Link: Telegram Briefly Removed From App Store

 

[germanbeer007]

*Apple removes app from App Store that harms users*
users: "See? This is why we need to be able to sideload"

*Apple doesn't remove app from App Store that harms users*
users: "See? App Store doesn't catch everything"

damned if you do, damned if you don't, users will complain about everything.

 

[KRBM]

Someone should make that sunflower meme with Apple, Telegram and X(Twitter)

 

[MeasterHD]

Looser Sweeney and his advices how Apple should run their business.

 

[danpass]

How did they know? Isn't Telegram a privacy-centric app?

-

 

[dg1974]

How did they know? Isn't Telegram a privacy-centric app?

-

That's a false (diffused) assumption.
Telegram chats are not E2EE by default, group chats/channels aren't E2EE and one cannot even enable that on those.
so basically anyone that could join a group/channel can "see" the content.

 

[danpass]

I must have been thinking of Signal.

 

[Sami13496]

Apple removed Telegram from the App Store after a review found content that violated its guidelines on child sexual abuse material. Tim Sweeney believes that decision was wrong. What a remarkable stance.

 

[2ilent8cho]

You don't understand the pain of the App Store until you want to put apps on YOUR devices. Even internal made apps that do little tasks for your company have to go through review even if they will only ever go out via your MDM, it's a joke! Unless you have an Enterprise account which Apple won't give easily anymore and steer you to go via Apple Business/School Manager and. normal developer.

The App Store should just be the flagship / trusted place to get things, like going to an Apple Store, if its on their shelf you know its to a certain standard, but very much should be a place to freely load apps on to your device.

 

[uacd]

but restored the app a short while later,

Oof. It sucks. Platform is not just CSAM-friendly (it doesn’t take much work to circumvent p**n ban in iOS app), it is well used for propaganda purposes, terrorism and sharing stolen content (and quality often sucks). I really wonder why it still not banned. Also it has stupid, boring and inconvenient UI, and that reason alone is worth for a full ban

 

[idrewuk]

Telegram is a cesspit of illegal content so I’m surprised it’s allowed full stop.

 

[akidd]

Based on Sweeney's response, it seems he'll be condemning the removal of any app - regardless of the reason. That'll take up a lot of his time, unless he decides to wait to find the reason before delighting us with his opinion.

 

[xpxp2002]

That's a false (diffused) assumption.
Telegram chats are not E2EE by default, group chats/channels aren't E2EE and one cannot even enable that on those.
so basically anyone that could join a group/channel can "see" the content.

And it’s “encryption” is some home-grown proprietary algorithm that’s never been properly audited. Nobody should assume it’s E2EE at all.

 

[uacd]

How did they know? Isn't Telegram a privacy-centric app?

-

That’s what Pasha Durov wants everyone to think. Stealing an account is only few clicks - you just need a sim card and SMS code, especially convenient with eSIM, there was a case when Russian authorities were able to hack into accounts of opposition representatives back in 2017 (I guess).

And comparing to stealing WhatsApp or Viber, stealing Telegram is a big deal - all messages are stored in the cloud, and once anyone gets to account - all messages can be accessed, downloaded and shared anywhere. Private chats exist and they are stored on-device, but no one uses them and they are specifically designed to be inconvenient

 

[aknabi]

Telegram is a cesspit of illegal content so I’m surprised it’s allowed full stop.

Wired and wireless data transports are a cesspit of illegal content so I'm surprised they're allowed full stop

 

[svish]

Glad to see that appropriate action has been taken.

 

[foobarbaz]

*Apple removes app from App Store that harms users*
users: "See? This is why we need to be able to sideload"

*Apple doesn't remove app from App Store that harms users*
users: "See? App Store doesn't catch everything"

damned if you do, damned if you don't, users will complain about everything.

You're missing the point here.

They removed the app based on the actions of one user they happened to see. Despite hundreds of thousands of similar cases before. Then they reinstated the app based on a single user ban. Despite likely many, many similar ongoing cases.

How is this reasonable? Is anyone claiming the app was harmful for exactly 40 minutes? It's either harmful or providing reasonable measures. That's not something that changes within the hour.

Apple's moderation decisions here are effectively random. That's what people are complaining about.

 

[It’s always something]

Was X removed from the App Store at any point because of the CSAM you could find and generate on it? 🤨

Something something double standard

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

If ONE ( 1️⃣ ) user can cause an entire App to be removed from the App Store due to their actions. wouldn’t that be an excuse to do the same with Instagram and Facebook? This is super bizarre and insane at the same time for the actions of 1 person 😳 it’s like punishing everyone who shopped at Walmart over one person stealing an iPhone Ultra a week before release.

 

[StuBeck]

Hopefully this wasn't just done for political reasons, as there are other apps which have this same problem at greater scale which are ignored for some reason.

 

[dobba]

Looser Sweeney and his advices how Apple should run their business.

The issue is that an app was taken down based on one user. By that logic, let's remove Safari or Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or iMessage or WhatsApp or why not go the whole hog and shut down the internet because all these platforms host questionable or illegal content. Let's ban all knives or baseball bats because someone used them to injure or 'unalive' someone. Phones and computer are the medium that kind of content is consumed, let's ban them too based on one user or account. Let's ban cameras too while we're at it.

How far do you want to go banning everything that could cause harm? This is not justifying the content or user that uploaded that material but banning a platform when everything else could also be responsible is pretty dystopian wouldn't you say?

 

[intoxicating29]

That’s a very odd situation, 1 user means the app gets removed.

So how does Apple justify Safari being available when illegal content could be viewed, downloaded or even uploaded via it?

 

[robvalentine]

Apple removed Telegram from the App Store after a review found content that violated its guidelines on child sexual abuse material. Tim Sweeney believes that decision was wrong. What a remarkable stance.

CSAM is awful, but I don't see iMessage going away and I'm sure CSAM has been shared via iMessage. Not that I have ever, or hope to ever receive it.

You have successfully misconstrued a valid point about competition, and gatekeeping, into something it's not.

 

[Luap]

That’s a very odd situation, 1 user means the app gets removed.

So how does Apple justify Safari being available when illegal content could be viewed, downloaded or even uploaded via it?

At a guess, (as a non Telegram user) if someone posts something on Telegram, then Telegram is also hosting that material(?) Whereas Safari doesn't host anything.

 

[robvalentine]

That’s a very odd situation, 1 user means the app gets removed.

So how does Apple justify Safari being available when illegal content could be viewed, downloaded or even uploaded via it?

Competition for iMessage isn't it?