Telegram has been accused of promoting terrorism and selling illegal drugs, but some say it has also been essential to pro-democracy protests.
Telegram is Got in trouble It has made a name for itself by collaborating with governments around the world to spread disinformation and promote extremism.
Now the app is once again facing harsh criticism. Co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov He was detained near Paris in connection with a suspicious investigation. crime Crimes linked to messaging apps, such as organized crime and drug trafficking.
“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently to Europe. It is absurd to claim that the platform or its owners are responsible for misuse of the platform,” Telegram said in a blog post after the arrests.
The messaging app has already run into problems in many countries, where governments have attempted to ban or crack down on Telegram over similar concerns and restrictions on media freedom.
According to Surfshark and Netblocks, a total of 31 countries have temporarily or permanently banned the Telegram platform since 2015, affecting more than 3 billion people worldwide.
Here are some of the countries where Telegram has encountered issues:
England
Recently, telegram It was used to plan and coordinate the anti-immigrant riots that took place in the UK in early August.
This comes in the wake of the murder of three girls in northern England, where extremists have been using Telegram channels to spread hatred against Muslims and share information about attack locations and targets.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to crack down on social media platforms that are fuelling the unrest, but no action has been taken so far against Telegram.
Mr Starmer called for “tough and effective sanctions” to be imposed on the company in 2021.
Spain
The Spaniards Telegram has been unavailable for a while A judge banned the app in March after four of the country's major media groups – Mediaset, Atres Media, Movistar and Egeda – complained that the app was distributing copyrighted content they produced without the creators' permission.
The judge asked Telegram in July 2023 to send specific information about the case, and ordered the app blocked after the company failed to respond.
However, the ruling was criticized as disproportionate and potentially damaging to millions of users, and was overturned.
Norway
The country considers the apps a potential threat to national security, and in March 2023 banned ministers, secretaries of state and political advisers from using both Telegram and TikTok on work devices.
“In their public threat assessment 'Focus 2023', the intelligence agencies point to Russia and China as the main threat actors to Norway's security interests,” said Justice Minister Emily Enger Mehl.
“They also point out that social media is a fertile ground for those seeking to influence us through disinformation and fake news.”
Germany
In 2022, the German government considered banning Telegram after finding that it had 64 channels that could potentially violate German laws banning hate speech, including anti-Semitic conspiracy channels.
Germany has fined Telegram's operators €5 million for failing to comply with German law.
Telegram said it agreed to cooperate with the German government and would remove these videos, as well as videos containing potentially illegal content, in the future.
Ukraine
Telegram has been the primary communications app since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, with President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing the nation daily and being used as a means of communication on the front lines of the battlefield.
The Russians are also using the technology to seek out information other than messages from the Kremlin, spread disinformation and hack military groups.
As a result, Ukraine is considering banning Telegram unless it implements certain changes, such as establishing an office in Ukraine and removing harmful or false content and users.
Russia
Russia temporarily banned Telegram for two years in 2018 after co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov failed to respond to requests for information from certain users.
However, the ban did not have a major impact, and the app thrived as a source of news for many Russians.
Despite the temporary ban, government agencies such as the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National COVID-19 Task Force have official channels on Telegram.
Belarus
Telegram was an important tool for sharing information in Belarus Anti-Government Protests in 2020 and 2021. It was one of the few social media apps that worked when the country blocked the internet for three days during the presidential election.
After the vote, Belarus published a list of Telegram channels it considered extremist, primarily anti-government, and Amnesty International said users could face up to seven years in prison if they joined them.
China
Telegram has been blocked in China since 2015. Local media reported that the app's servers came under distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, leading to the censorship.
Some experts say the attack may have been intended to give China an excuse to block the app, as Chinese human rights lawyers have used it to criticize the government and the Chinese Communist Party.
Iran
Telegram has been blocked in Iran since 2018, after protests demanding better economic justice in the country erupted a year ago.
The government has blamed Telegram for encouraging the protests and said local apps should be promoted.
Before the ban, half of Iran's population of around 80 million people reportedly used Telegram to communicate, but many still use the app through a virtual private network (VPN).
India
Just a day after Durov's arrest, the Indian government announced that it was investigating Telegram for allegedly being involved in multiple criminal activities and would consider banning it pending the outcome of the investigation.
The app has been used to leak multiple exam questions and spread child pornography, stock manipulation and blackmail in the country.
In July, authorities uncovered a stock manipulation scheme in which the administrator of a Telegram channel had received more than 20,000 euros by manipulating the share price of a steel plate manufacturing company.
“One of the most widespread scams on Telegram is the investment scam, where users are added to groups and encouraged to invest in stocks through fake apps that mimic genuine stock trading apps,” a senior police officer from the Delhi Police's cybercrime unit told local media.
Thailand
Telegram has been banned in Thailand since 2020 after its use during anti-government protests that year calling for the resignation of former Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the former army commander who seized power in a 2014 coup.
Telegram was used to organize short-term protests.