The Telegram free speech dilemma

Telegram is AmaZix’s primary work tool since our company’s inception. Early on, the crypto community embraced Telegram as its preferred communication platform, and we followed suit. Its privacy features and advanced capabilities as a one-to-many communication tool made Telegram essential for projects, users, newcomers, whales, developers, and virtually everyone in this ecosystem. Its free speech ethos also played a big role in this.

The recent arrest of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, has prompted us to reflect on the platform’s future, while revisiting its past, and our journey alongside it. Having supported nearly 1,000 crypto projects, it’s safe to say we are experts on everything Telegram. After all, the security of a significant portion of the app’s activity depends on our efforts.

The early days

When we began back in 2017, token sales were akin to the wild west. The ICO boom generated immense interest in pretty much everything that moved, regardless of their goals. There was a lot of capital being thrown around in the hopes of hitting the next big “jackpot” with a token. This frenzy led to a surge in activity within project chat rooms, and we were there to experience it firsthand.

Two problems were clearly evident - the need to swiftly remove spam, as chats were flooded with dozens of messages per second, and the necessity to maintain effective support and open discussion.

We’ve taken matters into our hands early on, developing an in-house spam protection bot that could swiftly eliminate scams, fake contribution addresses and scammers. It could also lock chats during token sale periods. We were able to do this through the developer-friendly Telegram API access.

Moderation policies

Telegram staff was also keeping an eye on scams, and released critical features over time. These included built-in chat locking, granular configuration options (such as controlling media sharing and member additions), slow mode, member anonymity, and even the ability to transform group chats into forums with distinct discussion sections.

Beyond this, Telegram became a whole ecosystem with an integrated wallet and apps to meet various needs. The platform has also strengthened its position by introducing Premium accounts that offer additional features. New features also allow creators to monetize their channels.

While Telegram has evolved significantly since we first adopted it, its core principles remain unchanged, with freedom of speech at the forefront. This is something we, at AmaZix, truly believe in. This ethos was always respected on the chats we managed. We only intervened in chats to remove spam or deceptive content.

Telegram also actively monitors content, responding to reports through human-operated accounts specifically for reporting illicit or fake chats, as well as employing AI systems to identify illicit content. Remarkably, this is achieved while maintaining the integrity of its free speech principles, as Durov said himself, and as demonstrated during the COVID vaccine debacle and the ongoing conflict discussions.

Durov’s arrest

Given all this, we were disheartened by recent news of Durov’s detention upon arrival in France. The allegations against him, including claims of complicity in criminal activities, and non-compliance with takedown requests, seem unfounded. In our experience, Telegram has always cooperated with legitimate removal requests, and as is publicly known, Telegram has even cooperated with governments on such matters.

While we recognize the importance of removing illegal content, and take action in the groups we manage to remove it, we believe it is unjust to hold Durov accountable simply because criminals exploit Telegram. To draw a parallel, would it be reasonable to arrest a knife manufacturer because his product was misused in a homicide? 

We hope for a swift and fair resolution to this situation that satisfies all parties involved. First, we believe Durov should be freed. Support is already emerging in the community, with people such as Justin Sun offering to donate to this initiative. Others, such as the HOT Wallet and TON Society, are raising awareness to this through their own support initiatives. Secondly, illegal content should be removed off of the platform faster. Hopefully, this episode serves as a way to improve moderation efficiency on Telegram even further.