Australia Sues Telegram for $38M Over Extremist Videos

Australia's online safety regulator is taking Telegram to court, seeking $38M in penalties and even threatening to shut the app down in the country.

Australia is taking the messaging app Telegram to court, saying the company failed to remove violent extremist content from its platform.

The country's online safety regulator, called the eSafety Commissioner, filed what's known as civil penalty proceedings (a legal case seeking fines rather than jail time) in Australia's Federal Court. The move follows a year-long investigation.

Here are the key numbers and facts:

The regulator is seeking penalties of up to A$54.6 million (about $38 million).
It claims Telegram failed to detect known "pro-terror material," including footage of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting and the 2022 Buffalo supermarket attack.
The Buffalo video reportedly stayed online for nearly three months.
Last year, Telegram was already hit with a separate $1 million infringement notice for delays in answering official questions.

The regulator says Telegram created a "permissive environment" where extremist content was "very easy to find" — content she warned could "normalise" and even "radicalise" users. She also noted the app was "sometimes used to plan attacks."

In a rare warning, the regulator said it could ask the court to shut Telegram down in Australia entirely — a power it has never actually used before.

Telegram is pushing back hard. A company spokesperson said its anti-terrorism efforts are "well documented," adding: "We reject these allegations and will contest them in court."

Telegram is facing legal trouble in several countries at once. Just a day before Australia's filing:

Russia charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism and placed him on an international wanted list. He could face life in prison there.
Durov was also indicted in France in 2024 over allegations of drug trafficking, fraud, and child abuse material on the app. He denies all wrongdoing, calling the cases "absurd."

This lawsuit is an early test of Australia's 2021 law requiring online platforms to keep pro-terror material off their networks. It comes shortly after Australia moved to ban social media for children under 16.

The outcome could set an important example for how governments worldwide hold big tech platforms responsible for the content they host.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://decrypt.co/374725/australia-sues-telegram-for-38m-over-pro-terror-videos