Australian Regulator Sues Telegram Over Extremist Content
Australia’s online safety watchdog has initiated legal action against messaging app Telegram, seeking substantial penalties and raising the prospect of a court-ordered shutdown of the service within the country. The eSafety Commissioner filed civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court on Thursday, culminating a year-long investigation into the platform’s handling of extremist material.
The regulator alleges that Telegram failed to adequately detect and remove “pro-terror material,” citing instances such as the live-streamed 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting and the 2022 Buffalo supermarket attack. These incidents, the Commissioner claims, remained accessible on the platform for nearly three months. Furthermore, the investigation found that Telegram’s terms of service did not explicitly prohibit pro-terror material across all facets of the application.
Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, told BBC News that Telegram has fostered a “permissive environment” where extremist content is “very easy to find.” She warned that such content “only serves to desensitise, to normalise and to sometimes radicalise” users, and that the platform has been “sometimes used to plan attacks.”
While Australia does not license online platforms, Inman Grant indicated that the eSafety Commissioner “could apply to the federal court and ask that the service be ceased.” She noted that these powers have not been previously exercised, adding, “We’ll see how this all plays out.”
This legal challenge follows a previous action where the regulator issued Telegram an infringement notice of nearly A$1 million last February. This penalty was for a five-month delay in responding to inquiries about terrorist and child sexual exploitation material. Telegram at the time labelled the penalty “unfair and disproportionate” and stated its intention to appeal.
The filing comes just a day after Russia’s FSB charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism and placed him on an international wanted list. The FSB alleges the platform was used by Ukrainian intelligence and extremist groups, with Durov facing a potential life sentence if convicted in Russia.
Durov also faces separate charges in France, where in 2024 he was indicted over drug trafficking, organised fraud, and child sexual abuse material allegedly disseminated on Telegram. He was released under judicial supervision and has denied all wrongdoing, calling the case “legally and logically absurd.”
A spokesperson for Telegram told the BBC that the company’s “extensive” anti-terrorism efforts are “well documented.” The spokesperson added, “We reject these allegations and will contest them in court.”
The current legal action represents a significant test of Australia’s 2021 law that mandates platforms to remove pro-terror material from their networks. It also follows Australia’s recent ban on social media access for individuals under 16, a measure spearheaded by Commissioner Inman Grant.
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