Journalists from 404 Media and Court Watch, while studying recently published public court materials, discovered a Telegram messenger letter attached to a criminal case in the US. The document indicates that the company handed over a user's phone number, account ID, and IP address to American law enforcement agencies, along with the exact connection time—October 8, 2025, at 02:08:12. The contents of the correspondence were absent from the response, which essentially outlines the limit of what the messenger is willing to disclose upon request.
“Voluntary” Transfer by Court Order
The legal qualification of the action itself deserves special attention. In the letter, Telegram specifically stipulated that the transfer of information is voluntary and does not imply recognition of the US authorities' jurisdiction over the company. At the same time, prosecution documents, as follows from the case materials, indicate that the information was obtained pursuant to a court order issued under the Stored Communications Act, which regulates US law enforcement access to data stored by internet services. Thus, the exact same data transfer is characterized differently in the two documents—as a voluntary step and as the execution of a judicial requirement.
The Case to Which the Letter Was Attached
Telegram's response was attached to the case of Mahmoud Amin Ya'qub Al-Muhtadi, whom US authorities accuse of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Along with the letter, an official email address intended for receiving requests from US law enforcement agencies entered the public domain. Journalists noted that the publication of such contacts creates the risk of them being used by fraudsters impersonating government agency employees.
The Scale of Requests from the US
The practice of transferring such information to authorities is not new, but its volume has grown significantly. According to data cited by 3DNews in January 2025, over the preceding year, Telegram fulfilled 900 requests from American law enforcement agencies and provided information on 2,253 users. For comparison: during the first nine months of 2024, the company fulfilled only 14 requests affecting 108 people. The scale difference between these periods indicates a multiple increase in the activity of US agencies in requesting data from the messenger.
Context Following Pavel Durov's Arrest
The clarification of data disclosure rules occurred against the backdrop of events surrounding Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who was detained in France in August 2024. Afterward, the messenger entrenched a policy allowing the transfer of IP addresses and phone numbers upon legally justified requests. The published letter contains no data on providing the content of personal messages to US authorities, which aligns with the company's stated disclosure boundary. Nevertheless, the very fact of transferring identifying and network data under US court requirements remains documented.
