Telegram has 41 million active users in Europe. For the European Commission to launch an investigation into the messenger, it must have at least 45 million users. And this is increasingly being used by Russians to spread propaganda.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, after the attempted assassination of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, social media was flooded with messages claiming that the Ukrainian government was behind the attempt, that the attacker was married to a Ukrainian woman, and many other similar statements. And Telegram was at the center of it.
“Disinformation is spreading openly and completely unchecked on Telegram,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Bloomberg.
She also said that requests for the removal of provocative or disturbing content remain unanswered.
Nowadays, Russians use the messenger not only to spread disinformation and propaganda, which is mainly aimed at undermining support for Ukraine in Europe, but also to recruit criminals who later carry out sabotage in various countries of the European Union.
“Telegram is popular among various pro-Russian actors as well as individuals who have been spreading disinformation for a long time because there is almost no content moderation,” said Daniel Milo, the former director of the Center for Countering Hybrid Threats at the Slovak Interior Ministry. “The rules of Telegram in this regard are very, very lax.”
Despite the fact that Telegram allegedly does not have a sufficient user base in Europe for a full-fledged investigation into compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA), Kaja Kallas is demanding that the European Commission launch an independent investigation, but the Commission has not yet commented on this call.
The messenger is currently regulated in Europe by the company’s legal representative office, which is located in Belgium. However, national authorities there have limited powers as to what measures they can take against content on the platform.
If Telegram were subject to the DSA, the European Commission could launch an investigation and take the same measures against the platform as against giants like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, but until the messenger becomes more popular or the European Commission changes its rules, this is impossible.
In late March, a draft law on Telegram regulation was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, including the use of the platform by government officials and military personnel.
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