A supervisory body will appear in the European Union that will regulate the work of Telegram.
What is known about the EU supervisory body that will regulate the work of Telegram
According to the publication, BIPT will monitor how Telegram responds to the spread of illegal content in the messenger, such as calls for violence or the illegal sale of weapons. The regulator can fine the company if it does not respond to user complaints.
As Mathias Vermeulen of AWO's data rights office noted, such oversight will be difficult.
Telegram is the platform that cooperates the least with governments, and compared to other applications, a lot is possible here, Vermeulen explained.
It is noted that BIPT is still awaiting an official appointment as a regulator.
This should happen within a few days with an announcement in the Staatsblad, BIPT spokesman Jimmy Smedts said.
As the publication writes, Belgium received oversight of Telegram thanks to the European Digital Services Act (DSA). The set of rules came into effect in February and aims to give EU member states more control over social networks and other online services, including by controlling how they moderate content themselves. According to these rules, social media must also be represented in Europe. Dubai-based Telegram has appointed Belgian company EDSR as its European representative. This gives jurisdiction to the Belgian telecommunications regulator BIPT.
Blocking Ukrainian chatbots in Telegram
On the evening of April 28, Telegram blocked official Ukrainian data transmission bots: the DIU, SSU, and Ministry of Digital Transformation, bots for tracking "Shaheds," bot "YeVoroh", and others.
Earlier, Durov announced that he would ban the use of bots that collect coordinates for strikes or publish direct personal information with calls for violence.
DIU noted that blocking bots is "unfounded" and contradicts Telegram's rules and public statements.
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, believes that the FSB forced Pavel Durov to block anything related to Ukraine because the Ukrainian authorities, particularly through the involvement of the Apple platform, managed to find a solution to block Russian propaganda in the messenger.
On April 29, Telegram restored access to the chatbots of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Digital Transformation after work was suspended.
