Telegram was briefly removed from Apple’s App Store worldwide after Apple reported that a user had shared child sexual abuse material through the messaging platform, Telegram said on Tuesday.

The incident echoes a similar suspension in 2018, when Apple temporarily removed Telegram over what founder Pavel Durov described as “inappropriate content.”

The app was later reinstated after Telegram introduced stronger content moderation and safety measures.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the brief removal, saying a review uncovered content that violated the company’s policies prohibiting child sexual abuse material.

“The app was subsequently restored after the developer promptly removed the content and banned the user ⁠who posted it,” the spokesperson added.

Telegram was removed from the App Store and reinstated later the same day after the platform addressed the issue.

The messaging app, which has more than one billion monthly active users, said it maintains a zero-tolerance policy against child sexual abuse material and has blocked nearly 338,000 groups and channels linked to such content so far this year.

“I’m sure this stance will be applied equally to all other apps in the store, in the future, right? Apple,” Telegram posted on X in response to a user who shared the Apple statement.

The chief executive of Fortnite maker Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, which has been locked in a years-long legal battle with Apple, questioned the tech giant’s decision to remove Telegram from the App Store.

“Apple has stated they removed the app from availability to a billion users because a Telegram user posted something horrible and illegal,” Sweeney wrote on X.