The Telegram app has handed over the IP addresses and/or phone numbers of 2,253 users in response to 900 requests from US law enforcement in 2024.
This is a significant jump, considering that between January 1 and September 30, 2024, Telegram processed only 14 such requests, Forbes reported.
Last year, the app's CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France, accused of failing to cooperate with a child sex abuse investigation. A month later, Durov said the company would start providing data in response to government requests for information - something it had long refused to do. "Forbes also revealed that Durov was the subject of a separate investigation for an act of violence he allegedly committed against his youngest child in Paris in November 2021.
The latest transparency report, first reported by 404 Media, is available via the Telegram channel. Users can only access the data for their country of origin. In the UK, for example, 293 users were affected by 142 requests made by the authorities. In X, some users share their country statistics. One user revealed that Germany made 945 requests and received data on 2237 people.
Compliance with government requests has forced some users who were creating child sexual abuse material to leave the platform. An official, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak officially, said, "Many of the people who have been using Telegram to exploit children in the belief that they are safe from government reach are increasingly realizing that this is not always the case, and are exploring new tactics to avoid detection."
On Christmas Eve, Durov said Telegram had a successful 2025, turning a profit for the first time in its history - its total revenue topped $1 billion. | BGNES
