Following the arrest, Telegram CEO said he would hand over the data of some bad actors to law enforcement

Messaging platform Telegram has made some concessions on user security and privacy following the arrest of its founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, in France last month.

Durov was arrested and questioned by French prosecutors on suspicion of criminal activity on the platform, including gang transactions and trading, as well as the company’s alleged failure to provide data related to the investigation. He was later released from police custody, with bail set at $5.56 million as the investigation progressed.

The investigation has sparked debate about free speech and criminal activity online, but authorities’ concerns were not surprising. The app — which has amassed more than 950 million users, largely thanks to its encryption technology and promises of user privacy — has been criticized for years for its popularity with shady online figures and criminals, including drug dealers, money launderers, and extremists, including white supremacists and terrorist groups like ISIS.

Following his arrest, Telegram said Durov had “nothing to hide” and that “it is absurd to claim that the platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of the platform.” Two weeks after his arrest, Durov admitted that the app’s “sharp growth” in users had caused problems that made it easier for criminals to abuse the platform.

Now, Telegram is making some changes to curb criminal activity on the platform, Durov said Monday in a post about the app. The most notable of them: Telegram has updated its terms of service and privacy policy to say it will hand over the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate its rules to authorities in response to “valid legal requests.” The platform says it will disclose all user data shared with law enforcement in quarterly transparency reports.

“Search in Telegram is more efficient than in other messaging apps because it allows users to find public channels and bots,” Durov wrote. “Unfortunately, this feature has been abused by people who have violated our Terms of Service to sell illegal goods.”

He added that a team of AI-assisted moderators identified and removed “problematic content” from the public search feature. “If you still find something dangerous or illegal on Telegram’s search engine, please report it to us via @SearchReport,” Durov wrote.

Telegram did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on how much content was removed or whether any channels or accounts were blocked as a result.

“The Telegram search engine is intended for finding friends and discovering news, not for promoting illegal goods,” Durov said.

While these changes may mean less criminal activity on public parts of the platform, they won’t necessarily eliminate the illegal use of private, end-to-end encrypted chats. Telegram says there’s “no way to read factual information” from conversations.

It is unclear what impact the decision to share user data with law enforcement will have on the ongoing investigation in France.

Telegram said it had previously taken strong action against some content that violated its policies, including restricting access to several channels linked to or operated by Hamas during the militant group’s war on Israel. It also removed calls to violence after reports that the app was being used to organize far-right, anti-immigrant riots in the UK.

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