Telegram has expanded the conditions under which it will disclose users' IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities

Pavel Durov spoke about how Telegram is ramping up its fight against illegal content. In his statement, the founder of the messaging app said:

"We’ve updated our Privacy Policy to make it consistent globally. We’ve made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those violating our rules may be disclosed to the appropriate authorities in response to valid legal requests.”

The @tginfo editorial team reviewed the updates to Telegram’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy across several countries. The new rules are the same in different regions and significantly change Telegram’s approach to data disclosure:

• Not just for terrorism anymore: Previously, Telegram only agreed to disclose a user’s phone number and IP address if they were a confirmed suspect in a terrorism case. Now, Telegram will disclose data upon an “valid order from the relevant judicial authorities” regarding users who are suspects in criminal cases involving illegal activities, while also violating Telegram’s Terms of Service.

• What’s strictly prohibited: In addition to illegal pornographic content, spam, scamming users, and promoting violence, Telegram now also bans “engaging in activities that are illegal in most countries.” This includes child abuse, drugs, weapons, and counterfeit documents.

• Vague wording: The new list of “illegal goods and services” is not exhaustive. This means Telegram is not limiting itself to this list and can disclose data for other violations as well.

• Disclosure in the past: Telegram removed the statement that it had never disclosed users’ IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities.

• Reports will be published more frequently: Information about the disclosure of user data will now be published quarterly, instead of twice a year.

#laws

Enhanced Moderation of Telegram Search

In early September, channel administrators began noticing changes in Telegram’s search algorithm. In his latest message, Pavel Durov confirmed that the messaging app's team has started moderating search results:

“In recent weeks, a dedicated team of moderators, using AI, has made Telegram search much safer. All problematic content we found in search is no longer accessible.”

• Users can report problematic search queries: The founder of the app invited users to help identify search queries that return undesirable content. Users can report such keywords to a new official bot — @SearchReport. Initially, this bot didn’t work in Russia and Ukraine, but a few hours later, users from these countries were also given access.

• Similar changes happen regularly: In September last year, Telegram began accounting for inflated subscriber counts and the share of users with Telegram Premium. At the end of August 2022, Telegram removed a large number of “inactive” usernames, arguing that inactive channels cluttered search results.

• Telegram is fighting illegal content this way: According to Pavel Durov, this year’s changes are aimed at tackling the search for illegal goods and services via Telegram.

• Not just rule-breakers are missing from search: Users have noticed that many channels from categories that do not violate Telegram’s rules, such as unofficial clients and news channels covering Telegram, have also disappeared from search results. This change has affected @tginfo as well. Now, these channels are only displayed in search reliably if you’re already subscribed to them.

#search

How to get back into the chat and how to get the ownership again?

We continue our FAQ-articles series with two new materials, closely related to each other:

1. What to do if a Group or Channel is Left Without an Owner?
tginfo.me/how-to-get-ownership-back-en/

2. How to Return to a Group or Channel After Leaving?
tginfo.me/how-to-comeback-en/

#FAQ

Due to the recent events in the Middle East, particularly in Israel, Lebanon, and Iran, Telegram experienced unprecedented loads. In the past few days, some users may have faced temporary connection issues and difficulties accessing media. Thanks to our technical team's efforts, Telegram remained available in most countries, and all issues are now fully resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Changes in global search

At the beginning of September, many users noticed that the search algorithms in Telegram had changed.

We tell you everything we know about this in the article https://tginfo.me/search-rules-change-2024-en/

#FAQ

Gifts, Verification Platform and More
Unigram 11.2 is rolling out now to the Microsoft Store. Find out what’s new by reading the blog post here.

Warning: users with a passcode may encounter problems when launching the app, a fix is on the way.

New Reasons For Reporting Content

Users can now report content for more different reasons than was previously available.

The content report menu now includes reasons such as “Illegal goods”, “Personal data”, “Copyright”, and some others.

Some items in the report menu, such as “Scam or spam”, are now sections in which the user can specify more detailed reason for the complaint.

When selecting some reasons, the application prompts the user to add a text comment. It is noteworthy that when selecting reasons ”I don't like it” and “It's not illegal, but it must be taken down”, it is impossible to specify a comment.

#update

Telegram Desktop Has Been Updated to Version 5.6.0

What's new:
• Star gifts.
• Improved Reporting Interface.
• Allow resizing the window used for web apps and games.
• Add mention / hashtag autocomplete in media and GIF caption field.
• "Include muted chats in folder counters" notifications setting.
• Auto-select URL suggested from clipboard when creating a custom link.
• Update emoji to Unicode 15.1.

Download:
• Windows/macOS/Linux: the official website or GitHub.
• macOS: App Store.

#update #desktop

click on galerie, then open various folders
#new

#new report options

#New button
Copy text

https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/commit/a2fad84dae64716bb812d5826b89f43722218c1d

keyboardButtonCopy#75d2698e text:string copy_text:string = KeyboardButton;

Limited Gifts in Telegram

In addition to the usual gifts, version 11.2 of Telegram introduced two "limited" gifts, released in limited quantities:
🍭 — 500,000 lollipops priced at 15 stars each;
🌸 — 100,000 cherry blossoms priced at 25 stars each.

The total value of the entire offering of these two gifts amounted to 10 million stars, which is around $150,000 based on the exchange rate on Fragment.

In the announcement, Pavel Durov mentioned that this year Telegram will introduce the ability to convert limited-edition gifts into NFTs based on TON: users will be able to auction and trade these tokenized gifts outside of Telegram.

After this, the limited gifts were completely sold out within a few hours.

Once users have bought all the "limited" gifts, they will no longer be available to send. Those who received them will have unique gifts, at least until they decide to exchange them for "stars". This way, users can collect gifts marked as "limited".

#Gifts