Telegram Temporarily Disappears, Explained as Extortion Attack

Cause of Disappearance, Explained as Extortion

On the 4th, Telegram temporarily disappeared from the Apple Store worldwide. On the 5th, Telegram founder Pavel Durov provided an explanation on X, stating that the disappearance was orchestrated by "extortionist attackers" posing as posters.

According to Durov, the attackers inserted illegal content that was AI-manipulated by editing past posts in a public group. They made the posts invisible to group participants and directly reported to Apple, thereby circumventing the usual moderation process that would have led to early removal.

Abuse of Post Editing Function

Durov explained that it has become common for extortionist posters to demand money from group administrators, threatening to insert illegal content and report it to Apple if their demands are not met. He stated that Telegram's measures against illegal content in public groups are effective, but this incident was an exceptional case due to technical manipulation.

Durov further criticized Apple for deleting the app without prior notice to Telegram. He warned that if an app used by a billion people can be removed without warning, it poses a common risk to all apps that handle user posts.

Criticism of Apple and Movement of GRAM

On the other hand, Apple explained to several foreign media outlets that the reason for the deletion was the confirmation of content related to the sexual exploitation of children.

Following Telegram's deletion of the relevant posts and banning the poster's account, the app has been restored. Apple has not commented on Durov's extortion theory at the time of the interview.

In the market, the related token GRAM (formerly Toncoin) reacted. According to multiple price sources, GRAM fell from around $1.40 to approximately $1.29 to $1.32 following the disappearance report, but has since recovered most of the loss, returning to the upper $1.30 range.