Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was recently released on a $5.6 million bail after he was arrested in France. However, he was restricted to remaining in France and was mandated to report to a police station twice weekly. According to reports, European fines on Big Tech platforms have exceeded a billion dollars. In the heat of this matter, several countries are weighing their cyber policies, and there is a high possibility of seeing legal action against Telegram in the coming weeks. However, critics have said new local laws threaten encryption. Will Telegram be banned in one of the European Union countries until October? Below are expert predictions and odds.
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Although Telegram is not only guilty of the allegations against it, other social media platforms have always faced such allegations. However, what makes this case different is that Telegram always failed to make themselves available to regulators or comply with laws on moderation.
Even before the French authorities' recent arrest of Telegram's CEO, the European Union had already put Telegram on its watch list. Telegram has frequently dodged the Digital Services Act (DSA), claiming that the platform has fewer than 45 million monthly users and couldn’t fall under the DSA's threshold. However, the platform was placed under Brussels' watch. The Belgian telecom authority was legally designated to monitor Telegram's activities.
Not only Telegram is facing legal issues, but YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, etc, are facing regulation issues. Elon Musk’s social media platform X was recently banned in Brazil and has been under much monitoring in the EU. In July, the European Commission confirmed that the platform’s blue tick deceives users and breached the DSA’s rules. Moreover, Telegram has suffered a ban twice in Brazil, in 2022 and 2023, after being accused of failing to cooperate with legal orders. The UK government has also punished Telegram for fuelling the far-right August riots that incited hatred against Muslims.
Germany almost banned Telegram in 2022 but later reduced the punishment to a fine. The country’s interior minister confirmed that Telegram cooperated in deleting suspicious channels. In March 2024, Spain temporarily blocked Telegram after a court ruling ordered the ban until Telegram cooperated to clarify the issue of copyrighted material circulating on the app. Judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain’s National High Court later lifted the ban.
Despite all these allegations, Pavel Durov’s lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, spoke to journalists in France and was quoted saying: “Firstly, Telegram complies in every respect with European digital regulations and is moderated to the same standards as other social networks.”
Expert Betting Tips
The issue of Telegram rests more on the fact that the platform bosses have constantly failed to present themselves to local authorities when problems arise. Telegram has always taken cases from local authorities with levity, and it is clear that the only way to get their attention is through a ban. So it won’t be surprising to see an EU country hold Telegram accountable like France and ban the platform until the executives of the platform cooperate with local laws. I see this happening anytime soon.
- Telegram will be banned in one of the European Union countries until October for 7.23 Odds.