Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov — already in legal hot water in France — faced a new headache after European Union regulators launched an investigation into whether his messaging app flouted digital rules, according to a report.
EU legal and data experts suspect that Telegram falsely reported that the platform has fewer than 45 million users to stay below a key threshold, above which large online platforms face much stricter rules for their influence, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Telegram, which has nearly 1 billion users worldwide, reported in February that it had 41 million users in the EU – but failed to provide an updated figure due this month.
Earlier this year, Durov told the FT that Telegram’s user base was “roughly proportional to the population of each market [or] continent” – with the exception of China.
Two EU officials told the FT that Telegram’s failure to provide up-to-date data on its user base puts it in breach of the Digital Services Act, a law passed last year to regulate the Big Tech like Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok and others.
Being above the 45 million user threshold would trigger a series of regulations sought by Brussels, such as a ban on targeted advertising, steps to stop the spread of disinformation or propaganda and a mechanism to share data with the European Commission – the executive branch of EU responsible for enforcing the laws.
“We have a way through our own systems and calculations to determine how accurate user data is,” said Thomas Regnier, the commission’s spokesman for digital affairs, a European Commission spokesman told the FT.
“And if we think they haven’t provided accurate user data, we can unilaterally assign them [as a very large platform] based on our investigation.”
The post has requested comment from Telegram.
Durov was seen in newly released video on Thursday leaving French custody after an appearance before a judge near Paris.
He was arrested on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a sweeping investigation launched this year and released on Wednesday after four days of questioning.
Magistrates filed preliminary charges Wednesday night before releasing him on $5.6 million bail.
Follow the latest on the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov:
He was ordered to stay put and report to a police station twice a week, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The allegations against Durov, who is also a French citizen, include that his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, and that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
The first preliminary charge against him was for “collaborating in the management of an online platform to allow illegal transactions by an organized group”, a crime that can lead to sentences of up to 10 years in prison and a fine exceeding half of a million dollars, the prosecutor’s office said.
Preliminary charges under French law mean judges have strong grounds to believe a crime has been committed, but allow more time for further investigations.
David-Olivier Kaminski, a lawyer for Durov, was quoted by French media as saying that “it is completely absurd to think that the person in charge of a social network can be implicated in criminal acts that do not concern him”. directly or indirectly.â€
Prosecutors said that Durov is “at this stage, the only person implicated in this case”.
They did not rule out the possibility that other people could be investigated, but declined to comment on other possible arrest warrants.
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