Here’s What Telegram Giving Data to the U.S. Government Looks Like
Newly filed court records include a letter from Telegram to U.S. authorities in which the company shares user data following a court order.
Newly filed court records reveal the process by which messaging app Telegram provides user data to U.S. authorities. A letter from Telegram, detailing a specific user's phone number, user ID, and IP address, is addressed to "Dear Sir or Madam." The letter states that the information was provided "voluntarily" and that by doing so, Telegram "is not conceding that we are subject to U.S. jurisdiction for this or any other request or any purpose."
The letter also includes Telegram's "non-public contact point" for requests made by U.S. law enforcement, which is now publicly available in court records. The email address used for these requests, content-referral-u1@telegram.org, is accessible to anyone.
The case involving the October 7 attacks against Israel centers around Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, who is alleged to have taken part in the violent events. As of January last year, Telegram had already forwarded data to U.S. authorities on 2,253 users, 404 Media previously reported.
Telegram began responding to lawful requests for data following French authorities arresting CEO Pavel Durov in August 2024, in connection with a child abuse investigation. Since then, the company has shifted from rarely providing data to authorities to now doing so as a matter of routine, similar to other tech platforms and messaging apps.
Written by urgent.news from 404 Media's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
