All it took was one arrest when getting off the plane… Telegram messaging reported a significant increase in the number of information transmitted to French justice between the beginning and the end of 2024, marked by the indictment of his boss Pavel Durov at the end of August.
According to figures published by the platform, the number of requests from French justice to which Telegram responded favorably has jumped.
The messaging service had transmitted information to French justice in the context of four requests in the first quarter, then six in the following quarter. A figure which reached 210 requests satisfied in the third quarter and 673 in the fourth.
In total, 2,072 users of the application were affected by these sendings of data to the French justice system in 2024, for a total of 893 requests satisfied, again according to figures published by Telegram.
Since the indictment of Pavel Durov at the end of August in Paris, his camp has ensured that Telegram has always responded to requests from French and European judicial authorities, particularly in terrorist matters, but that the vast majority of them were not addressed to the appropriate messaging service and therefore they were not successful.
The manager of the application, who has Russian, French and Emirati passports, was arrested and placed in police custody for four days before being indicted for numerous offenses linked to his messaging application. He is notably accused of not having acted against the dissemination of criminal content on Telegram.
Since this indictment, accompanied by a ban on leaving French territory, the messaging platform has changed its moderation rules to collaborate more with the judicial authorities.
In December, a source close to the investigation indicated that this legal procedure had had a positive effect, in France and elsewhere, with Telegram beginning to respond more than before to legal requisitions.
