Apple briefly removed Telegram from the App Store after finding child sexual abuse material, restoring it once the content was taken down. The Verge argues that the episode has renewed questions over Apple’s apparently uneven enforcement, since X remained available despite a surge of sexualised, non-consensual Grok-generated images involving children.

The article suggests the distinction may be political as well as technical: removing X could provoke substantial backlash in the United States, where it has stronger political support. Telegram, despite serving more than one billion users and being important in censored countries, has faced repeated scrutiny over its moderation, including investigations and government pressure related to illegal content, terrorism and hate speech.