Aug. 27, 2024 – French prosecutors arrested Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov and is being held as part of a cyber-crime investigation for offenses conducted on the platform including illicit transactions, child pornography, fraud and the refusal to disclose information to authorities. Drug dealing groups on Telegram display photos and videos of substances they say they offer which include cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy pills as well as fentanyl, LSD and the date rape drug Rohypnol.
Some include menu-like lists of drugs for sale and their prices. They instruct interested patrons to send messages to their anonymous accounts to make their orders. Then, the dealers post screenshots of order tracking information which they claim is proof of delivery, though Newsweek was unable to verify whether the advertised products reached those locations.
A Telegram spokesperson told Newsweek: “Telegram actively moderates harmful content on its platform including the sale of illicit substances. Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring of public parts of the platform, AI tools and user reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day before they can do harm.”
Matias Dewey, an academic who has researched Telegram’s impact on drug dealing in Argentina, called it the “messaging service par excellence” for drug dealing.
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