Apple temporarily removed Telegram from the App Store worldwide after a review found content that violated its rules against child sexual exploitation material, the company said.
Users trying to reach Telegram's official website saw a message saying the page could not be found, while searching for the app in a browser returned a notice that it was unavailable.
One User Blamed for the Removal
According to Reuters, the illegal material was posted by a single Telegram user. An Apple representative said the app was later restored after the developer quickly removed the content and blocked the user who had posted it.
Reuters noted that Apple had taken similar action before, removing the Telegram app from the App Store in 2018 after finding what it called unacceptable content. The app was restored at that time as well.
Telegram responded to Apple's move in a post on its official blog on the social network X, saying it was confident this same standard would apply equally to every other app in the store in the future, and asking Apple directly whether that was correct.
Durov's Explanation
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who has been placed on Russia's Rosfinmonitoring list of terrorists and extremists, said the app was removed because illegal pornographic content had been posted in a group chat.
He said Telegram has a moderation system designed to block such material, but that it had been bypassed: the person who posted the video did not create a new message but instead edited an old one, replacing the text with illegal content that had been altered using artificial intelligence.
Durov said the goal of the attack was extortion, describing a scheme in which channel owners are asked to pay a ransom or face having illegal content posted on their channels, followed by a complaint that could get the channel removed. He said he took two lessons from the episode, saying extortionists had found a way to manipulate Apple into overreacting, and that their tactics were evolving in ways that put many channels at risk.
