Telegram CEO Says Extortionist Manipulated Apple Into App Store Removal

[MacRumors]

Telegram was subject to a "takedown extortionist" who planted AI-modified child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to get Apple to remove the app from the App Store, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said today. Apple removed Telegram from the App Store for about 40 minutes on Monday night after discovering CSAM, but reinstated the app after Telegram removed the content.

The attacker was a takedown extortionist: someone who demands ransom from group owners in exchange for not targeting their communities. These extortionists use automated accounts to plant illegal content in public groups and then report it directly to Apple, attempting to trigger the removal of legitimate communities whose owners refused to pay them.

Durov said the attacker used a "technical trick" to evade moderation tools, editing an old message in an active group chat to add illegal content. The attacker was able to bypass moderation because group members didn't see the message to report it. Durov said illegal pornographic content in public groups is not a systemic problem because Telegram has effective moderation, and this was an edge case where an attacker used "backdated, effectively invisible content."

Apple pulled Telegram from the App Store before contacting the company, according to Durov. He said Apple was manipulated into overreacting, and he warned of a "potential systemic risk for every mobile app that hosts user-generated content."

After removing Telegram from the App Store, Apple said a content review found child sexual abuse material that violated the App Store guidelines. Apple further said Telegram "promptly removed the content and banned the user," leading to the app's return to the App Store. Apple has not commented on Durov's extortionist claim.

Article Link: Telegram CEO Says Extortionist Manipulated Apple Into App Store Removal

 

[ResolutionNZ]

Thanks for posting my tip.

 

[Astuces iOS]

Telegram is the "scammers app" anyways

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

The BIGGEST Controversy in App Store History is unfolding.

 

[ikir]

Love telegram, hate Durov. He is an hypocrite.

 

[KENESS]

Regardless of the reason the content was there, Apple's process doesn't seem like an overreaction. It was unavailable for download for 40 minutes. Nobody's usage of the app already on their device was interrupted. The issue was dealt with and it was restored.

Seriously, WHERE is this overreaction they speak of?

 

[dannys1]

Interesting how they said "the user was banned"

So they did this with one account?

What happens when someone plans this properly - with thousands of accounts all controlled by AI agents - posting messages in various groups for months and then unleashes the attack - it's no longer one account to block, you've got potentially hundreds, if not thousands all queued up - the worst spam attack known to man...

 

[svish]

Good that it was addressed promptly. Hopefully such issues do not recur.

 

[KRBM]

I wonder which extortionist allowed Grok to create CSAM, pushed Musk to defend it with all he got and then pushed Apple to not take down that app for it.

 

[surfzen21]

I was going to make a joke in the original story that it was probably a Russian FSB ploy and I guess Im not too far from reality.

Seems too coincidental after the FSB charged Durov with aiding terrorism.

 

[JosephAW]

Probably leads back to Meta.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Wouldn’t it be great if Apple wasn’t the dictator of all decisions on stuff like this?

 

[sw1tcher]

Regardless of the reason the content was there, Apple's process doesn't seem like an overreaction.

Maybe not on its own, but compare Apple's actions with Telegram (pulled app) and Apple's lack of action with both X and Grok (did not pull apps)

Apple Threatened to Pull Grok From App Store Over Sexualized Images

Apple privately warned Elon Musk's xAI company in January that it would remove the Grok app from the App Store unless the company put a stop to the chatbot's nude and sexualized deepfakes, according to a letter Apple sent to U.S. senators and obtained by NBC News ($). Earlier this year, Grok's...

www.macrumors.com

Internally, the company had found both X and Grok in violation of its App Store guidelines and demanded its developers submit a content moderation plan, the letter reveals.

According to the letter, Apple rejected an initial fix from xAI as insufficient, saying the "changes didn't go far enough," and Apple warned it that additional alterations were required or Grok would be removed. After further back-and-forth, however, Apple eventually concluded that a later submission of the app had improved enough for it to be approved.

Apple treats you differently when you're not the worlds richest person.

 

[noraa]

And yet both Grok and X are still available when they both continue to contain a plethora of AI generated CSAM.

 

[xraydoc]

Great...

New ideas for people looking to extort ransom from internet user groups. I'm sure Reddit will be next.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

“We have effective moderation, they just used a way to post it that we know is how they do it and haven’t blocked that way. Our moderation, though? Effective.”

 

[Unregistered 4U]

How many folks are essentially posting “Apple should allow that!!”

 

[neverknew]

I’m usually on the devs side but what a horrible statement from Telegram. They stated how the ‘extortionist’ exploited a very simple addressable flaw, but didn’t mention how they are going to improve the moderation tools to address the issue, like alerting moderators when a backdated message is edited.

Also, how is it an overreaction when Apple did exactly what they are supposed to do, which is removing apps with CSAM.

 

[SpotOnT]

How many folks are essentially posting “Apple should allow that!!”

I don’t see a single comment suggesting that Apple allow animated pornography on the App Store…

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Telegram is the "scammers app" anyways

It rilly is. The scammers weren’t able to have people sign up for Telegram for 40 wonderful minutes!

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I don’t see a single comment suggesting that Apple allow animated pornography on the App Store…

This is just the first page? “Apple shouldn’t have that level of control (to remove apps)” is bound to show up sooner or later.

 

[Makosuke]

Something about this seems a bit off, even if I take Durov's comments as accurate and at face value.

What he's saying is that a user account in an existing chat was able to edit old messages to insert CSAM and completely bypass moderation. His claim is that such content was "effectively invisible", which for a normal chat user (and the caveat that I don't use Telegram so don't know the nuances of its UI) seems plausible.

But: Isn't putting CSAM in places that bypass moderation and are effectively invisible to people who don't know to look there exactly what actual purveyors of child exploitation material want to do?

If this loophole exists, and the only "fix" was to delete the content and ban the user, why wouldn't it work for some genuine CSAM-sharers to join a ", talk normal things, wait a while, then go back and edit old messages to share CSAM with each other except not report it to Apple? If that bypasses moderation and is effectively invisible to anyone other than the people abusing the platform to do illegal things (who know where to look), how exactly is this not an ongoing and real loophole in their moderation policies?

Heck, for all we know, this is being used all over the place for real CSAM and nobody is reporting it to Apple in the real cases.

 

[jlc1978]

But: Isn't putting CSAM in places that bypass moderation and are effectively invisible to people who don't know to look there exactly what actual purveyors of child exploitation material want to do?

It goes beyond that. If what is claimed happen is true, Telegram potentially becomes a great tool for all sorts of secret messages by simply editing old messages.

 

[ThailandToo]

Love telegram, hate Durov. He is an hypocrite.

Sort of how I feel about Apple; love Apple, hate Tim Crook and his executive team’s policies of anticompetitive behaviors and practices. Compete because you can win, not because you can monetize every cent to give to shareholders while screwing over every other stakeholder. This is why the mass exodus of employees leaving for Meta, OpenAI, and etc! As a customer, I can only hope Ternus finds a better path. As of right now I cringe with every dollar I give Apple. I want to feel better about my purchases with Apple. But it’s going to take a lot of change and goodwill on Apple’s behalf to right the wrongs of the past 16 years with Crook at the helm. Crook has been amazing for shareholders, but everyone else got the shaft. In MBA school, we were taught to care for all stakeholders, Cook got the memo, but greed won him over.