Telegram was briefly taken down by Apple from the App Store after a “takedown extortionist” planted illegal pornographic content in a public chat, Telegram’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pavel Durov, revealed on Tuesday. Durov explained that the attacker tricked Telegram’s moderation tools by using the platform’s message-editing functionality, calling this a “technical trick”. The attacker “planted” AI-modified pornographic content by editing an old message in “an active group chat”. Hence, other members of the group were unable to see and report the illegal content. He said that takedown extortionists use automated accounts to post illegal content in public groups.
