Telegram CEO Says App Was Temporarily Removed From Apple App Store After False-Report Attack

Telegram Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov said the messaging app was recently temporarily removed from Apple Inc.'s App Store after a coordinated false-reporting attack, Cointelegraph reported on August 4.

In a post on his personal channel, Durov said attackers edited existing posts in public groups into illegal pornographic content generated by artificial intelligence and then reported them to Apple.

He described the incident as a typical extortion tactic in which attackers demand money from operators of public groups and, if refused, plant illegal content and report it to platform operators. Durov said the latest episode was part of an organized attack.