Telegram Has Taken Down ALL Public NSFW Groups

[iamdarkyoshi]

So around 15:00 today Pacific Time, telegram took down all public NSFW groups. They have had no information so far as to why, I will try to keep the thread updated as new news comes up.

 

Any message sent in a group that was taken down will be changed to 

Quote

This channel is blocked because it was used to spread pornographic content.

 

I'm seriously pretty ticked off, I hope this was a mistake and they'll fix it. They've always blocked NSFW groups on apple devices due to apple's store rules, but anywhere else, they've never censored like this before.

 

Telegram is my preferred messaging client, I've really not found anything like it. But this is pushing me to change if they don't fix it.

 

I have no news sources on this. I am reporting it directly. I'm not the only one though, just look at everyone spamming their twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%40telegram

 

 

UPDATE 1: Found this message in one of my chats:

Quote

[Forwarded from Foxo//Blue News (Ed [grrr])]
Telegram finally decided to post a privacy policy and terms of service, to make clearer how to prevent breaches of both.
For example, from now on joining Telegram is forbidden to people under 16 years old, if they live in the UK or EU - this is in reply to the GDPR law that went into effect yesterday. People from other places aren't affected.

We also finally got a clear message that it is a breach to post illegal pornographic content on public channel, bots and groups.

In monitoring more than 250 channels i have noticed that most of the channels that were blocked or straight disappeared were indeed containing words in the nick or title like rape, baby, cub, zoo and similar.
I also know for sure that telegram is doing both channel-based bans, and user-based bans for groups - that means banning channels (without consequences to the members) and limiting people (cannot post media, create channels and do other stuff anymore) if they joined groups where illegal stuff was posted.

So, to recap: porn in public channels and groups = ok (but expect to be forbidden from apple devices), illegal porn in channel = channel banned and creator limited, illegal porn in group = group banned and users limited (however, i'm not sure if all members are limited or just the admin, i've seen different ways it happened)

Also be cautious when naming your channel/group, since nicks that contain questionable terms will be probably banned and you will be limited.

https://telegram.org/tos
https://telegram.org/privacy

 

 

UPDATE 2:

It appears it may have been a bug. Awaiting more confirmation.

 

UPDATE 3:

Just got another confirmation, this time through a direct TG message from support:

Quote

Volunteer Support:
Hello, sorry for the inconvenience!

There was a bug on our end that made random groups and channels appear as blocked for porn, even if they were not related to pornographic content at all. This has since been fixed, and you should now be able to access those chats. Sorry again!

 

 

Interesting they said random groups, not ones that had the "don't show on apple devices" flag set, which is what seemed to be the case.

Edited May 27, 2018 by iamdarkyoshi

[SImoHayha]

But y though.

[aezakmi]

"telegram is not able to read your messages since everything is """""encrypted"""""" "

 

 

 

[DrMacintosh]

Why would you want to be in a public lewd group? Discord has a much better system for that

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Why would you want to be in a public lewd group? Discord has a much better system for that

I have (or rather had) a group called Cage Free Shitposting. It wasn't a lewd group as much as it was a shitposting group that had a pretty staggering member count. 

[captain_to_fire]

9 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

"telegram is not able to read your messages since everything is """""encrypted"""""" "

 

 

 

I don’t think they can. They can however shutdown groups linked to sharing pornographic materials. They did the same thing with shutters down chat groups linked to ISIS but they still haven’t surrendered their encryption keys to anyone including the Kremlin. 

[captain_to_fire]

12 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Telegram is my preferred messaging client, I've really not found anything like it. But this is pushing me to change if they don't fix it.

No mention from the founder Pavel Durov just yet. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

It always baffles me how so many companies, organisations and entire countries treat pornographic content as if it's the most terrible thing in the world that will poison the mind of anyone who sees it. 

 

There's so much other, way more potentially damaging content out there, yet so many people and organisations with some authority and power spend so much time and energy trying to get rid of it as much as possible. I really wonder what it is they're so desperate to stop from happening. I've seen it a lot in the UK, where the government appears to have a war on pornography, to the point where there's laws banning completely harmless sexual acts from being filmed and sold as pornography in the UK. 

[Princess Luna]

I use Telegram as a private messenger, it's pretty good for that though I didn't even know it had groups like Discord servers.

[captain_to_fire]

4 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It always baffles me how so many companies, organisations and entire countries treat pornographic content as if it's the most terrible thing in the world that will poison the mind of anyone who sees it.

Child pornography however is a terrible thing (often associated with exploitation of minors, money laundering, etc) and it’s considered as child abuse in many countries and if Telegram shuts down groups that share child porn, then by all means. 

[iamdarkyoshi]

UPDATE: THIS APPEARS TO BE A BUG

 

All the NSFW channels and chats I'm aware of are back.

 

HOWEVER

 

TG clearly has the code to do this, and if it was a simple as a flip of a switch, that's not good. 
 

Continue discussion below.

[aezakmi]

27 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

I don’t think they can. They can however shutdown groups linked to sharing pornographic materials. They did the same thing with shutters down chat groups linked to ISIS but they still haven’t surrendered their encryption keys to anyone including the Kremlin. 

how do they know the users in those groups share porn if they can't see the messages?

 

something's not right

[iamdarkyoshi]

2 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

how do they know the users in those groups share porn if they can't see the messages?

 

something's not right

Public groups. Ones you can join with a public link like @linustechtips 

[Shakaza]

13 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

how do they know the users in those groups share porn if they can't see the messages?

 

something's not right

I believe when the channels were being shut down, it was based on the names of the groups and channels, not on the content.

 

11 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Public groups. Ones you can join with a public link like @linustechtips 

Also this. ^