Telegram's "Freedom of Expression" Meets 54.6 Million Reasons to Lawyer Up 🇦🇺

Australia's eSafety Commissioner filed civil penalty proceedings against Telegram in the Federal Court on Thursday, alleging the messaging platform breached the country's Online Safety Act by failing to act on user complaints about "pro-terror" content. The action follows a year-long investigation that found some reported material remained visible for up to three weeks, including footage from the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings and the 2022 Buffalo mass shooting. The regulator is seeking penalties of up to A$54.6 million ($35.8 million), and Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told BBC News the agency could "apply to the federal court and ask that the service be ceased" if necessary, calling Telegram's environment one in which extremist content was "very easy to find" and "only serves to desensitise, to normalise and to sometimes radicalise" users.

The filing landed one day after Russia's Federal Security Service charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian criminal code with facilitating terrorist activity and initiated procedures to place him on an international wanted list. Russian authorities alleged Telegram failed to remove channels, chats and bots "actively used by Ukrainian special services, terrorist and extremist organizations" to coordinate attacks, recruit operatives and carry out cyber fraud. Durov, who could face up to life in prison if convicted in Russia, has not issued an official statement on the Australian or Russian proceedings, though Telegram's official X account posted a video captioned "freedom of expression" and an image of Durov making a profane hand gesture.

Durov remains under investigation in France following his August 2024 arrest at Le Bourget Airport, where he was charged with offenses including complicity in the distribution of illegal content and later released under judicial supervision. He has denied wrongdoing and called the French case "legally and logically absurd." The eSafety Commissioner had previously issued Telegram an infringement notice for nearly $1 million in February 2024 over a five-month delay in answering questions about terrorist and child sexual exploitation material; Telegram called that penalty "unfair and disproportionate" and said it would appeal.

A Telegram spokesperson told the BBC that the platform's "extensive" anti-terrorism efforts were "well documented," adding: "We reject these allegations and will contest them in court." Australia does not license platforms, Inman Grant noted, making the proceedings a test of the country's 2021 online safety law and arriving shortly after Parliament passed her spearhead ban on social media for under-16s.