Telegram hit with AUD$1M fine: Australia's crackdown on tech giants

Australia’s online safety regulator has fined social media platform Telegram for AUD$1 million (€608,000) for failing to respond to a transparency reporting notice deadline by over five months.

The eSafety Commissioner wanted to know what measures the platform took to prevent the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and violent extremist material.

The questionnaire included questions about what Telegram does to detect terrorist and violent extremist content and CSAM, and what measures it has in place to prevent the live streaming of this kind of harmful content.

Telegram received a transparency reporting notice in March 2024. The deadline for submitting answers to the regulator’s questions was May 6th. However, Telegram decided not to respond until October 13th, exceeding the deadline by well over five months.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant wants to send a message to the tech industry that a timely response to a transparency notice isn’t voluntary.

“Telegram took 160 days to provide information that was asked in the reporting notice and providing this information so late has obstructed eSafety from delivering its functions under the Online Safety Act for almost half a year,” Grant says in a statement.

Originally, the online safety regulator wanted to impose a higher fine on Telegram. However, the eSafety Commissioner chose to lower the number because she thought the AUD$1 million fine would reflect the significant delay in providing transparency information and encourage Telegram to improve its practices.

The eSafety Commissioner emphasizes that the threat posed by terrorists and extremists is a real and growing risk in Australia. That is why the tech industry must live up to its responsibilities to be transparent and put in place measures to prevent its services from being misused.

Telegram has 28 days to appeal the fine, pay the infringement notice, or seek an extension to pay the penalty. If Telegram chooses to ignore the infringement notice, the eSafety Commissioner will seek a civil penalty in court.

“Telegram fully responded to all of eSafety’s questions last year, with no outstanding issues. The unfair and disproportionate penalty concerns only the response timeframe, and we intend to appeal,” the platform said in an email to Cybernews.

Meta, WhatsApp, Google, Reddit, and X also received a transparency reporting notice in March 2024. They delivered their answers in time, though, so they weren’t fined.