Net world
Judge orders Telegram blocked in Spain
The judiciary in Spain has temporarily blocked the messaging app Telegram nationwide. photo
© Fabian Sommer/dpa
Telegram is to be blocked in Spain due to copyright infringement. Telegram is known for regularly refusing to provide information to authorities.
A court in Madrid has temporarily blocked the short message service Telegram arranged in Spain. The judiciary in Madrid said the reason was the lawsuit filed by several media companies against Telegram for violating copyright protection regulations. However, Telegram could initially be reached further from Spain.
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).
Requested administrative assistance several times in vain
The court said that Judge Santiago Pedraz at the National Court of Justice had repeatedly sought administrative assistance from the authorities in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, where Telegram is registered, to no avail. However, the authorities there did not cooperate in clarifying the identities of the owners of Telegram accounts from which copyrighted content was distributed. The court emphasized that the temporary blocking of the entire Telegram service was “necessary, appropriate and proportionate” from the judge’s point of view.
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 its larger competitor WhatsApp, it 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 primarily about a conflict between the judge of a constitutional state and a private company and about the balance between anonymity and impunity on the Internet.