Apple temporarily kicks Telegram off of App Store for 'inappropriate' content [u]

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Apple temporarily kicks Telegram off of App Store for 'inappropriate' content [u]

Last updated 7 years ago

In a surprise move, Apple has removed popular messaging apps Telegram and Telegram X from the App Store, reportedly because of problems with "inappropriate content" being distributed through them. [Updated with apps' return]

"We were alerted by Apple that inappropriate content was made available to our users and both apps were taken off the App Store," founder Pavel Durov on Twitter. "Once we have protections in place we expect the apps to be back on the App Store."

It's unclear what content drew Apple's attention, since Telegram is a personal messaging service. It could be the company feels Telegram isn't doing enough to let users respond to objectionable material, which would be a violation of App Store policies.

Telegram has sometimes been accused of being a platform of choice for terrorists, since its support for end-to-end encryption blocks governments from snooping on chatter. In fact the service formed a special team of moderators in Indonesia to avoid being blocked by that country's government.

The platform has some 180 million active users worldwide, most of those outside the U.S.

Update: Both Telegram and Telegram X are once again available for download.

16 Comments

Couldn't people do the same type of things using Apple's iMessage? Seems kind of dumb to me.

3 Likes · 0 Dislikes

"Inappropriate content"?!? Has Apple looked at the Tumblr app lately? LOL

7 Likes · 0 Dislikes

said:

Couldn't people do the same type of things using Apple's iMessage? Seems kind of dumb to me.

Yes but Telegram is cross platform and has additional features.

iMessages might be encrypted but its by no means private.

Have you ever synched iMessages to a desktop and was later surprised to find old messages on a Mac that you had deleted from your phone?
Have you ever poked around your disk with something like Disk Inventory to find a cache of old pictures you had sent with iMessages?

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes

I'm a little intrigued. I hope someone gets the scoop and reveals what is going on.

As for the terrorist reference, I imagine most have switched to Signal by now along with anyone else who has sensitive data to move around.

said:

said:

Couldn't people do the same type of things using Apple's iMessage? Seems kind of dumb to me.

Yes but Telegram is cross platform and has additional features.

iMessages might be encrypted but its by no means private.

Have you ever synched iMessages to a desktop and was later surprised to find old messages on a Mac that you had deleted from your phone?
Have you ever poked around your disk with something like Disk Inventory to find a cache of old pictures you had sent with iMessages?

That's still private -- I have to be logged into my computer's account to see my iMessages on it.