Telegram disappeared from the App Store on the night of August 4th, without warning. The absence lasted approximately forty minutes: the time it takes for Apple to detect the violation, notify Telegram and wait for the app to remove the offending content and ban the account responsible. Apple confirmed the sequence of events by declaring that the removal had occurred after the discovery of CSAM material (child sexual abuse material) contrary to its own guidelines, adding that the app was restored after timely intervention from the Telegram team.
Pavel Durov However, he offered a reconstruction that goes beyond the simple response to a violation. Telegram’s CEO posted a detailed explanation, claiming that the app was targeted by a digital extortion mechanism called “takedown extortion”. The way it works is simple in its brutality: malicious actors demand money from the administrators of public communities, threatening to have them removed from the stores if they don’t receive payment. Those who refuse to pay become the target of automated accounts that plant illegal material in the community and report it directly to Apple.
In this specific case, the attacker took a technically refined approach to bypass Telegram’s moderation systems. Rather than publish new content, he retroactively edited an old message within an active group, inserting CSAM images processed using artificial intelligence. The result: the material was technically present in the group, but completely invisible to its members, who had no way of seeing it or reporting it through normal moderation channels.
Telegram removed from the App Store for 40 minutes: the systemic risk that worries Durov
The point that pushed Durov to publish his version of events concerns the entire ecosystem of apps that manage user-generated content. Apple proceeded with the removal without first contacting Telegram to verify the situation or allow a direct response. According to the CEO, this dynamic opens the door to a worrying scenario: a sufficiently organized actor could replicate this technique against any app, forcing its temporary removal as an instrument of pressure or reputational damage.
Telegram wanted to clarify that its moderation against child pornography content is not passive: in 2026 alone, the platform removed over 337,900 groups and channels linked to the CSAM. The episode involving Apple is defined by Durov himself as an isolated case, made possible by a technique based on backdated and invisible contents, never used before in this specific context.
Durov concluded by warning that digital extortionists specialize in “takedown extortion” they are continually refining their techniquesbecoming a structural threat to the communities of any social platform, regardless of the solidity of the moderation systems in place. Apple, at the moment, has not released a statement on the accusation of manipulation made by the founder of Telegram.
