The Telegram logo is displayed on a number of screens on August 26, 2024 in London, England. Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday evening. The arrest is reportedly part of an ongoing investigation by French authorities into Telegram's lack of moderation. The operation was carried out by France's OFMIN, an agency focused on preventing violence against minors, fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and organized crime. (Photo illustration by Leon Neal/Getty Images) By Renju Jose
The eSafety Commission in March 2024 sought responses from social media platforms YouTube GOOGL.O, X and Facebook META.O to Telegram and Reddit, and blamed them for not doing enough to stop extremists from using live-streaming features, algorithms and recommendation systems to recruit users.
Telegram and Reddit were asked about the steps they were taking to combat child sexual abuse material on their services. They had to respond by May but Telegram submitted its response in October.
"Timely transparency is not a voluntary requirement in Australia and this action reinforces the importance of all companies complying with Australian law," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.
Telegram's delay in providing information obstructed eSafety from implementing its online safety measures, Grant said.
Telegram said it had fully responded to all of eSafety's questions last year, with no outstanding issues.
"The unfair and disproportionate penalty concerns only the response time frame, and we intend to appeal," the company said in an email.
Australia's spy agency in December said one in five priority counter-terrorism cases investigated involved youths.
The messaging platform has been under growing scrutiny around the world since its founder Pavel Durov was placed under formal investigation in France in August in connection with alleged use of the app for illegal activities.
Durov, who is out on bail, has denied the allegations.
Grant said Big Tech must be transparent and put in place measures to prevent their services from being misused as the threat posed by online extremist materials poses a growing risk.
"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," Grant said.
If Telegram chooses to ignore the penalty notice, eSafety would seek a civil penalty in court, Grant said.
($1 = 1.5625 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry and Diane Craft)