Telegram Content Moderation: A Simplified Overview

🔒 1. Private Chats & Secret Chats: Privacy First

• Private Chats: Telegram does not scan messages unless a user reports the conversation.

• Secret Chats: Fully end-to-end encrypted; even when reported, Telegram cannot access message content. Only anonymous “signals” may trigger an investigation.

---

📣 2. Groups & Channels: Reports Trigger Review

• Private Groups/Channels: Not visible to moderators unless reported.

• Public Groups/Channels: Must not promote violence, child abuse, or illegal pornography.

  • Even groups without usernames may be treated as public if their links are shared openly.

• Automatic Scanning: Images and videos in private spaces may be scanned to detect known illegal content.

---

🤖 3. Automated Detection: When and How It Works

• Triggered only by user reports or in public spaces.

• Can detect images, videos, and text.

• 65% of flagged extreme content is sent to human reviewers; the rest is handled by AI based on confidence scores.

• High-confidence child abuse content is removed immediately.

---

🚨 4. What Telegram Detects

• Known illegal content (e.g. extremist materials):

  • Automatically scanned across all groups/channels (not private chats).

• New suspected content:

  • Telegram analyzes usernames, bios, text, and profile images after reports.

  • Once confirmed, content is added to a blocklist for future detection.

---

🧠 5. Tech Behind the System

• Uses in-house + Europol databases for image/text detection.

• Multilingual AI models with behavioral signals (e.g. admin activity) to assess risk.

• Doesn’t rely on static blacklists—AI detects similar behavior/patterns.

• Monitors links shared by unregistered users or verified institutions.

---

⚙️ 6. Content Removal & Account Actions

• Reported content may lead to changes in what appears in search.

• Group admins may get a warning period to fix issues.

• Severe violations (e.g. child abuse, terrorist content) lead to permanent bans.

• Regular members who didn’t share illegal content won’t be banned—protecting researchers, journalists, etc.

---

🚫 7. Zero Tolerance for Child Abuse

• Any content or account involved in child sexual abuse is instantly removed.

• Admins are banned, and content is added to Telegram’s global blocklist.