Australia’s online safety regulator has sued Telegram, accusing the messaging platform of leaving videos showing terrorist executions online for weeks after they had been reported by users.
The case, filed in the Federal Court by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, seeks penalties of up to $A54.6 million ($35.5 million). Regulators say some of the videos remained online for as long as three weeks after being flagged, raising questions about the speed of the platform’s response to reports of extremist content.
The eSafety Commissioner said the videos showed terrorist groups executing people and should have been taken down much sooner.
The regulator says leaving such content online for long periods is exposing users to harmful material and is not meeting the platform’s responsibilities under Australia’s online safety laws.
Governments tighten pressure on online platforms
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of increasingly aggressive moves by governments to tighten their grip on how tech companies handle illegal and violent content.
This also comes at a difficult time for Telegram and its founder Pavel Durov.
The Australian lawsuit comes just a day after Russian authorities reportedly charged Durov with aiding terrorism. The Russian case is separate and unrelated to Australia’s civil action but the consecutive developments add to the legal pressure facing both the company and its founder.
Telegram has built a reputation for privacy and free speech, with features like encrypted messaging and large public channels attracting hundreds of millions of users around the world. But those features have been criticised by regulators, who say they can make it harder to spot and remove harmful content.
The platform has said it removes terrorist propaganda and cooperates with authorities where appropriate. But regulators in several countries have continued to question whether those efforts are fast and effective enough.
Australia intensifies tech platform oversight
Australia’s been very active in holding online platforms accountable. In recent years, the country’s eSafety Commissioner has taken action against a number of major technology companies, including for child exploitation material, cyber abuse, violent content and failures to comply with content removal orders.
The Telegram case is one piece of that broader push to get platforms to act more quickly when users flag illegal or dangerous material.
If the Federal Court rules in the regulator’s favour, Telegram could be fined up to A$54.6 million. Along with any fine, the case could set expectations about the way messaging platforms respond to reports of extremist content in Australia.
The lawsuit is part of a wider trend of governments around the world clamping down on online platforms. Regulators are pushing companies to move faster to take down content linked to terrorism, violence and other criminal activity, while at the same time balancing those efforts with privacy protections and freedom of expression.
For Telegram, the Australian case adds another tier of regulatory scrutiny at a time when governments are paying more attention to the role messaging platforms play in policing harmful content online.
