Telegram blockade in Spain: can this also happen in the Netherlands?

The Spanish Supreme Court recently ordered a Telegram blockade in Spain. This happened in response to complaints about copyright infringement.

Telegram blockade in Spain

The Telegram blockade in Spain was announced following a joint complaint by Mediaset, Atresmedia and Movistar Plus+. They accused Telegram of distributing their content without permission. The judge decided that the telecom providers had to suspend access to Telegram within three hours of receiving the judicial notice.

The judge made this decision because Telegram did not respond to requests for information and cooperation. The Telegram block is an attempt to stop further copyright infringement.

Telegram blockade in Spain: can this also happen in the Netherlands?

Telegram in other European countries

More things happen on Telegram that are unacceptable, also in the Netherlands. Like this wrote outgoing minister Yesilgöz recently stated that she wants to do something against drug trafficking via Telegram, but that this is complicated. There are no less than 2.5 million drug advertisements on Telegram. There are also many so-called ‘exposure groups’ on Telegram, where child pornography and doxing are commonplace, but which the police cannot get a grip on.

In Germany threatened Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser already imposed a Telegram blockade two years ago. This was mainly because followers of conspiracy theories frequently communicated via Telegram channels and the number of death threats and plans for attacks increased significantly there.

telegram blockade

A temporary blockage

The closure of certain Telegram channels has happened before, including in Germany and Brazil. A complete Telegram blockade has never happened before in Western Europe. This will not happen quickly in the Netherlands either. This Telegram blockade in Spain is all the more striking.

The judge has now suspended the Telegram blockade. That decision was made pending a report from the Comisaría General de Información on the impact of the blockade on Telegram’s 8.5 million Spanish users (about 25 percent of the Spanish population).

Spaniards can continue to use Telegram with a VPN connection during the blockade. A VPN connection encrypts all data, so that the telecom provider can no longer see whether the person who logs in to Telegram is in Spain or not.

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