Spanish National Court judge Santiago Pedraz has given telecom operators three hours to suspend the Telegram app in Spain, a period that is counted from the date of receipt of the judicial communication, according to the judge's order issued today.
This comes in the wake of a complaint filed by operators Mediaset, Antena 3 and Movistar, which accused the app of hosting copyrighted content without a license.
The Spanish judge considered that there was no alternative that could prevent the facts from being repeated, and therefore ordered telecommunications and Internet access operators licensed to operate in Spain to suspend resources linked to Telegram, according to the EFE news agency.
This precautionary measure comes within the scope of a lawsuit for the crime of continuing violation of intellectual property rights against the owners of several channels created on the social media network “Telegram.”
The judge deemed the measure “necessary, appropriate and proportionate,” noting in the order that Virgin Islands authorities had not cooperated in order for Telegram to report certain technical data that would have allowed the identification of the owners of the accounts used for the infringement. Intellectual rights.
According to the Spanish judge, the repeated failure to comply with the request addressed to the Virgin Islands, in July 2023, prevents the further investigation into the case.
In his order, the judge stressed that “this repeated practice of crime against intellectual property rights justifies the adoption of the relevant precautionary measures when the principles of necessity, suitability and proportionality are met.”
Under the order, the judge agrees to extend the investigation for six months, until September 29.
Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging service, currently based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and has more than 700 million monthly active users, according to company data.
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