Australia’s online safety regulator has launched civil penalty proceedings against messaging platform Telegram, accusing the company of failing to stop the spread of terrorism-linked material on its service.
The eSafety Commissioner filed the case in the Federal Court, alleging Telegram breached obligations under the country’s Online Safety Act by not acting on multiple user complaints about pro-terror content.
A year-long investigation by the regulator found that some reported material remained accessible for up to three weeks after Telegram became aware of it. eSafety says the company did not take sufficient steps to prevent repeated violations, including removing accounts, channels and groups used to distribute extremist content. The probe also identified instances in which known extremist footage, including clips from the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks and the 2022 Buffalo shooting, were not detected before later being removed.
The regulator is seeking financial penalties; breaches of Australia’s online safety rules can carry fines up to A$54.6 million, roughly US$35.8 million.
Telegram has not issued a formal response to the Australian proceedings. Its official X account posted a video captioned ‘freedom of expression’, but the company did not provide a statement to the reporting outlet.
The Australian action comes amid broader scrutiny of Telegram and its founder Pavel Durov. Russian authorities recently charged Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and said they were seeking to place him on an international wanted list, alleging Telegram failed to remove channels, chats and bots used by hostile actors. Telegram’s X posts have at times reacted to those moves with provocative images of Durov.
Durov faces separate legal pressure in France after his August 2024 arrest at Le Bourget Airport. French prosecutors have accused him of complicity in distributing illegal content, including material linked to organized crime. Durov has publicly decried what he describes as growing threats to online privacy, warning that the promise of a free exchange of information is being transformed into a tool of control in posts he made as recently as October 2025.
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