Encrypted messaging app Telegram has been fined nearly $1m by Australia’s online safety regulator for failing to respond on time to questions about what the company does to tackle terrorism and child abuse material on its platform.
The notice was issued to Telegram, among other companies, in May last year, with a deadline to report back in October on steps taken to address terrorist and violent extremism material, as well as child exploitation material on its platform.
Because Telegram failed to respond for nearly 160 days, eSafety has issued an infringement notice to the company for A$957,780.
“If we want accountability from the tech industry we need much greater transparency. These powers give us a look under the hood at just how these platforms are dealing, or not dealing, with a range of serious and egregious online harms which affect Australians,” the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said in a statement.
“Telegram took 160 days to provide information that was asked in the reporting notice and providing this information so late has obstructed eSafety from delivering its functions under the Online Safety Act for almost half a year.”
A joint statement by the Five Eyes security agencies, including the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian federal police, last year named Telegram as one platform through which young people were accessing extremist propaganda videos.
“Research and observation have shown us that this material can normalise, desensitise and sometimes radicalise – especially the young who are viewing harmful material online that they cannot unsee,” Inman Grant said.
Telegram has 28 days to request the withdrawal of the infringement notice, pay the infringement notice, or seek an extension to pay the infringement notice.
A spokesperson for Telegram described the penalty as “unfair and disproportionate” and said the company intends to appeal.
If Telegram does not pay the fine, the commissioner could take other action, including seeking civil penalties in the federal court. Guardian Australia asked eSafety whether the ultimate power Inman Grant’s office has for noncompliant platforms – to block the site and remove the app from app stores – was being considered, but eSafety indicated the federal court was the appropriate next step.
Telegram has signalled its willingness to be more cooperative with regulators across the globe after the company’s CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in August last year and charged with several counts of failing to curb extremist and terrorist content. He remains on bail and has been banned from leaving France until the case is heard. Wired reported this month it could be a year before the case goes to court.
Since Durov’s arrest, Telegram has begun releasing transparency reports for its responses to law enforcement requests. According to the most recent report, for 2024, Telegram fulfilled 14 requests for IP address and/or telephone number information from Australian law enforcement, affecting 23 users.
The eSafety report containing the responses from Telegram, Meta, WhatsApp, Google and Reddit will be released in early March.
When Elon Musk’s X was given a notice to provide similar information, it appealed against the decision to the Administrative Review Tribunal, with the case still ongoing.
In a different set of cases in the federal court, eSafety fined X more than $610,000 for failing to adequately respond to notices, and took X to court, while X also sued over the notices. The cases are ongoing.
