Apple briefly yanked Telegram from the App Store worldwide after spotting child sexual abuse material shared by a user.
According to Reuters, an Apple spokesperson confirmed the short-lived takedown, explaining that a routine review flagged content breaking their strict anti-abuse guidelines. They noted that the app was brought back as soon as Telegram’s developers pulled the offending material and banned the account responsible. Everything was sorted out and the app was back online the very same day.
A similar hitch happened back in 2018. Apple temporarily pulled the app over what founder Pavel Durov described as inappropriate content, only restoring it once Telegram beefed up its safety measures.
Telegram, which now boasts over a billion monthly active users, maintains that it holds a strict zero-tolerance policy against child abuse material. To back that up, the platform claims to have already shut down nearly 338,000 offending groups and channels so far this year.