Telegram boss Pavel Durov will now respond to requests from judicial authorities to share personal data of criminal suspects.

Telegram has long been under fire and has been under Belgian supervision since last month. The messaging platform and its co-founder Pavel Durov have been accused of a lack of moderation, which the Justice Ministry said would allow propaganda and fake news to run rampant, making them accomplices to crimes committed via Telegram. Now, Durov said in a Telegram post that the company would share more data with authorities upon request and that its privacy policy has been revised.

Data protection promise revised

Pavel Durov, co-founder of Telegram, himself announced in a Telegram post that the company would now share the IP addresses and mobile phone numbers of crime suspects with legal authorities. This could combat and slow down criminal activities on the messaging platform. For a messaging platform that initially never responded to legal requests for personal data, this is a notable change.

However, it remains to be seen whether the authorities will grant their requests. Telegram will not simply respond to every request from the authorities. It is still unclear what conditions such a court order must meet. The data protection regulations are now being improved. Durov says it wants to deter criminals.