{"id":843214,"date":"2026-08-04T12:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843214\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:40:14","slug":"telegram-messenger-vanishes-from-the-iphones-app-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843214\/","title":{"rendered":"Telegram messenger vanishes from the iPhone\u2019s App Store"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Telegram<\/a> has briefly vanished from the App Store, over claims it is being used to share images of child sexual abuse. <\/p>\n

The controversial messaging app was removed for download onto the iPhone<\/a>, before being restored, Apple<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

The incident follows a similar suspension in 2018, when Apple temporarily pulled \u2060Telegram for material the app’s founder Pavel Durov called “inappropriate content” at the time, only to be restored after Telegram beefed up safeguards. <\/p>\n

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the recent brief removal, saying its review found content that violated guidelines prohibiting child sexual abuse material. <\/p>\n

“The app was subsequently \u2060restored after the developer promptly removed the content \u200band \u2060banned the user who posted it,” the spokesperson added. <\/p>\n

The app was removed and restored on the same day, after Telegram took action. <\/p>\n

Telegram, which has \u2060more than a billion monthly active users, says it has a zero-tolerance policy \u200bfor \u2060material on child sexual abuse, blocking \u200cnearly 338,000 groups and channels over such items this year. <\/p>\n

“I’m sure this stance will be applied equally to all other apps in the store, in the future, \u200cright? Apple,” Telegram posted on X in response to \u200ca user who shared the Apple statement. <\/p>\n

Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Fornite-maker Epic Games, which has been embroiled in legal challenges with Apple for years, questioned the U.S. tech giant’s decision. <\/p>\n

“Apple has stated \u2060they removed the app from availability to a billion users because a Telegram user posted something horrible and illegal,” Sweeney wrote on X. <\/p>\n

“They did not elaborate on how, if that is the standard for app removal, any communications app could operate at scale, including iMessage.” <\/p>\n

An Apple spokesperson did not respond to a request for further comment on the guideline violation. <\/p>\n

Telegram has drawn regulatory scrutiny for its handling \u200cof child sexual abuse material and other illegal content as recently as April, \u200bwhen Britain’s Ofcom launched an investigation into evidence suggesting sharing of child \u200csex abuse material. <\/p>\n

Telegram has “categorically” denied the \u2060communications regulator’s accusations, adding that since 2018 it had “virtually eliminated” the public \u2060spread of child sexual abuse material through detection algorithms. <\/p>\n

Telegram was also fined in February by Australia’s online safety \u200cregulator for delaying answers \u200bto queries on measures taken to rein \u200cin material on child abuse and \u200bviolent extremist behaviour. <\/p>\n

Additional reporting by agencies <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Telegram has briefly vanished from the App Store, over claims it is being used to share images of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22045,1337,64,63,10355,415139,105,52217],"class_list":["post-843214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-app-store","tag-apple","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-child-sexual-abuse","tag-child-sexual-abuse-material","tag-technology","tag-telegram"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}