2024-03-23 19:12:27
A Spanish judge ordered the temporary suspension of the Telegram messaging service in the country because it did not receive the data requested as part of an investigation into certain accounts that allegedly violate intellectual property rights, Justice reported on Saturday .
In his order, Judge Santiago Pedraz, member of the National Court, granted a period of three hours to telecommunications and internet access operators operating in Spain to carry out “the temporary suspension of resources associated with Telegram”, once they have been informed of his decision.
However, Telegram was still accessible at midday on Saturday.
Judge Pedraz ordered this precautionary measure, dated Friday, in the absence of a response from the authorities of the Virgin Islands, where Telegram’s head office is registered, to a letter rogatory sent in July 2023.
This request is part of an investigation opened after a complaint filed by Spanish audiovisual companies according to which certain Telegram accounts were broadcasting content infringing their intellectual property rights.
In his request, the judge asked the Virgin Islands authorities to ask Telegram to provide “certain technical data that would identify the owners” of these accounts, but he did not receive a response.
“The lack of cooperation from the Virgin Islands authorities, who are only asked to communicate with those responsible for Telegram, means that the precautionary measures […] must be adopted,” argues the judge.
This judgment was criticized by consumer associations like Facua, which warned of the “enormous damage” that this suspension could cause “to the millions of users of this application”.
“It’s as if they are closing the internet because there are sites that illegally host copyrighted content,” lamented its secretary general, Rubén Sánchez.
Telegram, which, according to its website, has some 700 million users worldwide, has already been temporarily suspended in other countries, including Brazil last year, for failing to provide information to authorities, in the occurrence of neo-Nazi groups active on its platform.
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