Recently published information from the messaging platform Telegram indicates a significant increase in the number of data requests it has complied with over the last year from law enforcement agencies seeking user information. This surge in fulfilled requests follows the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov by French authorities in August, partly due to the company’s historical reluctance to share user data in connection with a child exploitation investigation. Shortly after Durov’s arrest, Telegram seemed to ease its stance on handling abuse reports.
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According to Telegram’s latest transparency report — which can only be accessed with a Telegram account and is restricted to the user’s local region — the app provided phone numbers and IP addresses to U.S. authorities on 900 occasions in 2024, impacting 2,253 users. This marks a notable increase in the number of data requests fulfilled compared to most of 2024, during which Telegram responded to just 14 requests involving a total of 108 users, as reported by a global crowdsourced map of requests created by Meduza. (For more current Telegram transparency data, click here.)
Telegram’s transparency statistics for 2024 also reveal that the app shared phone numbers and IP addresses with Indian authorities on 14,641 occasions, affecting 23,535 users. In the case of the United Kingdom, Telegram reported providing phone numbers and IP addresses to U.K. authorities 142 times, impacting 293 users, a rise from the single-digit figures seen in the previous reporting period.
