Human rights activists have called on Pavel Durov to make paid reactions on Telegram anonymous

The human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners: Memorial” sent an open letter to Telegram founder Pavel Durov. 

The authors of the letter called for paid reactions in the messaging app to be made anonymous, citing the risks of criminal prosecution for Russian users.

According to human rights activists, paid reactions and the way Telegram’s internal currency, Telegram Stars, operates create a serious vulnerability in the messaging app’s privacy system. They claim that the public nature of information about the senders of “stars” is being exploited by Russian law enforcement agencies during the criminal prosecution of users.

“Memorial” states that a practice is emerging in Russia whereby sending paid reactions to posts on Telegram may be classified as a transfer of funds to organizations banned in the Russian Federation.

As an example, human rights activists cite the case of Mikhail Antonovich, a 56-year-old resident of Tyumen. According to the project, the man was charged with “financing terrorism” for nine paid reactions on Telegram totaling 292 rubles and 99 kopecks. These reactions were posted under publications on the channels “NEVZOROV,” “Nakipelo. Michael Naki,” and “Sasha Shpak Official.”

Human rights activists emphasize that, according to the investigation, it was not only the act of sending “stars” that mattered, but also the fact that other posts on these channels contained calls to raise funds for Ukrainian groups recognized as terrorist organizations in Russia. This is precisely why investigators interpreted the paid reactions as financing terrorist activities.

Mikhail Antonovich’s case is currently being heard in the Central District Military Court, according to “Memorial.”

The authors of an open letter to Pavel Durov proposed several changes that, in their opinion, could strengthen user protection.

In particular, they call for:

• make paid reactions anonymous by default for all users;
• add a separate option to the privacy settings titled “Always send reactions and stars anonymously,” which would apply to all chats and channels;
• to give channel administrators the ability to completely hide lists of users who send the most paid reactions, or to hide information about senders from specific countries;
• Add a warning about the risks of using Telegram Stars and encourage users to send “stars” anonymously;
• Retroactively hide the profiles of users who previously sent “stars” under posts, replacing their information with the total number of reactions.

“Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” noted that the public nature of the lists of Stars senders could create additional risks for users, especially given Russia’s practice of persecuting people for their online activity.

Human rights activists called on the Telegram team to review the mechanism for displaying the senders of paid reactions and to promptly strengthen privacy settings.

Earlier, the popular Telegram messaging app introduced several new features for users. 

As a reminder, on the night of August 4, Apple temporarily removed the Telegram messaging app from the App Store after discovering material depicting child sexual abuse within it. The app was reinstated in the store only after Telegram removed the prohibited content and blocked the user who had posted it. 

Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated that the app’s temporary removal from the App Store was due to manipulation by extortionists. The perpetrator edited an old message in a public chat, adding prohibited content to it, and then filed a complaint with Apple himself.