Messenger service Telegram: Spanish court orders blocking of Telegram

The highest court in Madrid has ordered the temporary blocking of Telegram in Spain. The judiciary said the reason was the lawsuit filed by several media companies against Telegram for copyright infringement. The companies accuse the messenger service of allowing users to upload their content without permission.

Judge Santiago Pedraz has decided to block Telegram services in Spain from next Monday while the allegations are investigated. Consumer advocates in Spain, where there are several million Telegram users, criticized the measure as disproportionate. However, country restrictions can be relatively easily circumvented using protected network connections (VPN).

Telegram is registered in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. The court also said authorities there had not cooperated in clarifying the identities of the owners of Telegram accounts from which copyrighted content was distributed. According to the court, the temporary blocking of the entire Telegram service is “necessary, appropriate and proportionate” from the judge’s point of view.

Opponents of the regime prefer Telegram

The newspaper El País wrote that Telegram regularly refuses to provide information to the authorities. Since the service protects the identity of its users more than the messaging service WhatsApp, the app is preferred by opponents of the regime in dictatorships such as Russia or Iran. But there are also channels on Telegram with criminal or extremist content. In addition to protecting copyrights, the ordered blockade is also about balancing anonymity and impunity on the Internet.

According to the competition authority CNMC, Telegram is the fourth most used short message service in Spain. According to its own information, the company had more than 700 million monthly active users worldwide in 2023.

The highest court in Madrid has ordered the temporary blocking of Telegram in Spain. The judiciary said the reason was the lawsuit filed by several media companies against Telegram for copyright infringement. The companies accuse the messenger service of allowing users to upload their content without permission.

Judge Santiago Pedraz has decided to block Telegram services in Spain from next Monday while the allegations are investigated. Consumer advocates in Spain, where there are several million Telegram users, criticized the measure as disproportionate. However, country restrictions can be relatively easily circumvented using protected network connections (VPN).

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