Copyright: Telegram temporarily blocked in Spain

Media companies are regularly at war with Internet services. The reason for this is almost always copyright infringement. In Spain, this has now had serious consequences for Telegram. A court ruling has now blocked the messenger in the EU country for the time being.

Temporary injunction against Telegram

Bad news for Telegram. The messenger cannot offer its service in Spain for the time being. The reason for this is a temporary block resulting from a court ruling. The ruling was preceded by a lawsuit from Mediaset, Atresmedia and Moviestar Plus. The three media companies accuse Telegram of various copyright infringements. The Spanish judiciary has published a public statement on the facts of the case and the ruling.

Despite the blockade, Spanish users were still able to use Telegram for quite some time. In the meantime, however, the shutdown seems to have become a reality. This is not only not going down well with the messenger’s community. The decision has also brought criticism from other quarters. The high number of users also plays a major role here. Telegram enjoys great popularity in Spain.

The “Consejo General de Colegios Profesionales de Ingeniería”, among others, expressed its displeasure in a public statement. The professional association for computer technology not only found the ruling very “surprising”. It was also surprised that Telegram, of all platforms, had been blocked so quickly. After all, other even larger platforms such as Instagram have also been criticized for making extremely questionable content available to the public.

Verdict probably without alternative

The court is trying to provide explanations. The judge in charge, Santiago Pedraz, has emphasized that a temporary ban is unfortunately unavoidable. The reason for this is the fact that it is impossible to access the Telegram accounts in question. Official support from the Virgin Islands was also not possible. The British archipelago in the Caribbean is the official headquarters of Telegram.

Accordingly, the court considers the ruling to be “necessary, appropriate and proportionate”. In this matter, there is indeed a big difference to other social media giants such as Meta. After all, Telegram simply lacks a reliable point of contact. The Spanish newspaper El País, for example, reports that the messenger often simply fails to provide information to the authorities.

Of course, this is not simply due to laziness. Rather, this is Telegram’s recipe for success. After all, users feel safe in the knowledge that they will not be “blackballed” if the worst comes to the worst. Some of the content in the service’s chat groups is correspondingly crude. The supposed anonymity ensures that users openly post conspiracy theory, extremist and even criminal content.

Telegram as a “safe haven”

However, the criticism from the Spanish professional association is well-founded. Despite all the questionable content that is shared on Telegram on a daily basis, the high value placed on anonymity should not just be demonized. After all, in authoritarian states such as Russia and Iran, the medium is probably the most important means of communication for members of the opposition and critics of the regime.

• More on the topic: Telegram blocks 64 channels under pressure from federal government

The decision is likely to have been correspondingly difficult for the court. After all, the anonymous use of Telegram is a valuable unique selling point. Nevertheless, it should not lead to users remaining completely unpunished. This is particularly the case if the rights of other people or companies are violated. The question now is how long the ban will remain in place.