Why your bot does not delete messages in a group
Privacy mode, admin rights and the right setup order — the number one reason moderation bots seem broken.
The most common complaint about moderation bots sounds the same: “added it, it does nothing”. Nine times out of ten the cause is identical.
Privacy mode
Bots have privacy mode on by default: inside a group the bot sees only commands (“/start”, “/ban”) and messages that reply to it. Ordinary member messages never reach it — so there is nothing to filter.
It is turned off at BotFather, not in the group: /mybots → your bot →
Bot Settings → Group Privacy → Turn off.
Important: the change applies to new joins. If the bot is already in the group, remove it and add it again, otherwise it keeps seeing nothing.
Admin rights
Even seeing messages, the bot cannot remove them without “Delete messages”, and cannot restrict anyone without “Ban users”.
Checking is easy: group settings → administrators → your bot. No checkboxes, no moderation — physically.
The order that works
- Turn privacy mode off at BotFather.
- Add the bot to the group.
- Make it an admin with delete and ban rights.
- Post a test message with a banned word.
If nothing happens after that, the problem is in the bot’s own settings rather than in Telegram.
What the service should do
A decent service checks the rights itself and warns before you discover the problem during real spam. We cache permissions and show what is missing in the group list — see moderation.