Telegram briefly removed from Apple App Store, restored after one hour
Quick Look
- Telegram vanished from Apple’s App Store for about an hour on Tuesday, affecting users worldwide.
- The app was restored without explanation.
- The incident follows recent regulatory actions in Australia, Russia, and other countries over alleged failure to remove extremist content.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Telegram has over 1 billion monthly users and faces ongoing criticism for content moderation failures in several countries.
Telegram has disappeared from Apple’s App Store, with users in multiple countries reporting they can no longer download the popular messaging service.
The platform, which claims more than 1 billion monthly active users, has long faced accusations in several countries of lax content moderation and failing to crack down on illegal activity.
Users began reporting problems downloading the app on Tuesday shortly after 01:00 GMT. No official reason has been given for the removal.
The app returned about an hour later. “Telegram has been restored on the App Store and should soon be available again for all users,” the company said without elaborating.
Telegram’s official account on X wrote: “Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.”
Last week, Australia’s telecommunications regulator initiated civil proceedings against Telegram for allegedly failing to detect and remove “pro-terror material” from the platform, including videos of terrorist executions and mass shootings.
Last month, Russia placed Telegram’s Russian-born founder Pavel Durov on a wanted list on terrorism charges and designated him as a person involved in terrorism and extremism. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) alleges that Durov failed to take down a dating chatbot used by Ukraine to recruit young Russians to commit arson and other forms of sabotage.
Durov, who has lived outside Russia since 2014, said he was put on a terrorist list “for refusing its demands for mass surveillance and censorship on Telegram.”
Russia first blocked Telegram in 2018 but lifted the restrictions two years later, citing the company’s cooperation with authorities to combat terrorism. The country banned the service again in February 2026, citing violations of the law.
Durov was briefly detained at an airport outside Paris in 2024 after French authorities accused him of allowing organized crime to proliferate on Telegram. He later claimed that French intelligence services had tried to pressure him into enacting political censorship, including a crackdown on conservative voices during Romania’s contentious 2025 presidential elections. France has denied his claims.
The messenger was briefly blocked in Brazil in March 2022 and April 2023, after authorities accused the platform of failing to curb the spread of misinformation and neo-Nazi chat groups.
Open Questions
- What caused the temporary removal from the App Store?
- Will similar removals occur on other platforms?
