How the EU tightened the noose on Telegram

2024: Censorship crackdown

The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force earlier this year, requires so-called 'Very Large Online Platforms' (those with more than 45 million monthly users) to comply with a host of data protection and advertising-related rules. Such platforms are also required to "address the spread of disinformation", a term that the DSA mentions more than a dozen times without providing a definition.

While Telegram claims to have 41 million monthly users in the EU, European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova told Bloomberg in May that the platform is a "special case", and would be investigated and potentially placed on the list anyway.

Jourova accused Telegram of enabling the spread of Russian "disinformation," and called it "an issue" that the platform is "especially active in the eastern member states where we have a Russian-speaking minority."

Ahead of this potential regulation, Telegram has appointed a Brussels-based company as its legal representative in the EU, meaning that Belgian authorities will be responsible for enforcing EU law against Durov's company. Last week, the Belgian Institute of Post and Telecommunications (BIPT) announced that it still could not prove that Telegram had more than 41 million monthly users.

The DSA allows the EU to fine platforms as much as 6% of their global annual turnover if they break its rules. The law also allows repeat offenders to be banned from operating in the bloc.