Telegram Fights Back: Platform Purges Channels Used for Extortion and Doxxing

Pavel Durov announced that over the past 20 days, Telegram has received hundreds of reports from users about cases of extortion and doxxing. Based on these complaints, the platform initiated a large-scale purge of channels that published personal data without consent and used it to exert pressure on victims.

According to Durov, removing a channel in such cases means the service’s team possesses indisputable evidence of violations—specifically, the posting of defamatory material followed by its deletion in exchange for payment from the victim.

“Some were even caught selling so-called ‘protection blocks’—fees that victims were expected to pay to avoid harassment,” he wrote.

The founder of Telegram emphasized that the platform is not meant for blackmail or the dissemination of personal information, warning that creating clones of blocked channels will not shield offenders from moderators.

In July 2025, Durov had already warned of a new wave of extortion on the platform. He referred to scammers demanding valuable digital assets from users—rare Telegram gifts, numbers, and usernames—which, once worth only a few dollars, can now sell for over $100,000.

He noted the growing prevalence of criminals threatening to expose personal or confidential information belonging to the owners of such assets. Some have turned this into a scheme: posting compromising content and then demanding payment for its removal.

“This is both illegal and immoral. We will not tolerate it,” Durov stated at the time, promising that Telegram would combat such practices and delete the accounts involved.

For those facing extortion, he advised collecting evidence and sending it directly to him in private messages. However, Durov acknowledged that not everyone can do this because of the paywall on his account. When it is disabled, incoming messages can exceed thousands per minute, making it physically impossible for him to review them all.

As an alternative, he recommended contacting Telegram’s support team via the @notoscam account, including the hashtag #blackmail in the message. This would help route the complaint more quickly to the appropriate moderator.