EU regulators are considering whether Telegram should be subject to more stringent regulation

In a report published today by Bloomberg, European Union regulators are considering opening an investigation into messaging platform Telegram over reports of its use for illegal and harmful content, as well as the way it defines the number of users for digital services. (DSA).

The European Commission has started talks with Telegram, focusing primarily on the number of users based in the EU and how the platform is defined. The DSA has an additional, more stringent set of requirements to be followed for “very large online platforms”, which are defined as having more than 45 million active users, and are as follows:

• Greater user rights:
  • Users will receive clear information about why they have been recommended certain information and will have the right to opt out of profiling-based recommendation systems;
  • Users will be able to easily report illegal content and platforms will have to diligently process such reports;
  • Ads cannot be displayed based on sensitive user data (such as ethnicity, political views or sexual orientation);
  • Platforms must label all ads and inform users who is promoting them;
  • Platforms must provide an intelligible, plain language summary of their terms and conditions in the languages ​​of the Member States in which they operate.
• Strong protection for minors:
  • Platforms will need to redesign their systems to ensure a high level of privacy, security and protection of minors;
  • Targeted advertising based on child profiling is no longer allowed;
  • Specific risk assessments, including those relating to adverse mental health impacts, will have to be submitted to the Commission 4 months after designation and made public no later than one year later;
  • To mitigate this risk, platforms will need to redesign their services, including interfaces, recommendation systems, and terms of service.
• More conscientious content moderation, less disinformation:
  • Platforms and search engines must take measures to address the risks associated with the spread of illegal content online and the negative impact on freedom of expression and information;
  • Platforms must have clear rules and conditions and enforce them diligently and non-arbitrarily;
  • Platforms must have a mechanism that allows users to flag illegal content and respond quickly to notifications;
  • Platforms need to analyze their specific risks and implement mitigating measures – for example to address the spread of disinformation and inauthentic use of their services.
• Greater transparency and accountability:
  • Platforms must ensure that their risk assessments and their compliance with all obligations under the DSA are subject to external and independent audit;
  • They will have to provide scientists with access to publicly available data; later, a special mechanism will be created for verified researchers;
  • They will be required to publish repositories of all ads displayed on their interface;
  • Platforms must publish transparency reports on content moderation and risk management decisions.

Telegram currently claims to have only 41 million active users in the EU, so it falls outside the scope of the additional requirements listed above. However, a European Commission spokesman said it was investigating Telegram’s calculation method and would monitor market developments.

Meanwhile, others believe that Telegram should face more stringent requirements anyway, such as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who stated that “We believe that Telegram is a large enough platform that it should be subject to similar obligations as Facebook, X and YouTube. It should qualify as a very large online platform.”

So far, the European Commission has established a list of 17 very large online platforms (VLOPs) and 2 very large online search engines (VLOSEs), which includes, among others, Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Google Search. Adding Telegram would increase the number of VLOPs to 18.

Source: Bloomberg