Telegram, the most popular alternative instant messaging application to WhatsApp, will be temporarily blocked in Spain by order of the judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, as a result of a complaint filed by Mediaset, Antena 3, and Movistar, who accused the application of hosting copyrighted content without permission.
At the time of publishing this article, the messaging application continues to function normally, but it is expected that the service will cease to be operational in the next few hours, once telecommunications companies carry out the block imposed by the National Court.
As explained on Telecinco, the National Court would have requested information from Telegram about the alleged audiovisual content hosted without permission on the platform, owned by the companies that filed the complaint: EGEDA, Atresmedia, Mediaset, and Movistar. Since the administrators of the social network have not responded to the judge's request, he has opted to order the block temporarily while the investigation continues.
At the moment, Telegram has not commented on the block.
Although many Telegram users are still able to use the messaging platform without problems, services like DownDetector are already collecting the first complaints from users affected by the block.
It is expected that, gradually, all telecommunications operators in the country will take the necessary measures to block the use of the messaging service.
Is it possible to block Telegram?
The reality, despite the judicial block of the platform that the different national operators are obliged to implement, completely blocking Telegram is very complicated. Telegram as a platform is prepared for this type of situation, and one of the first measures that blocked users can take may be the configuration of a proxy. A proxy is a mechanism by which the platform is accessed from another server (the proxy), thus avoiding the network blockage of Telegram servers (which are not located in national territory).
Another possibility to continue using Telegram during the block is the use of a VPN. A VPN is a private connection that allows access to the Internet from another geographical location. In this way, a Spanish user connected to a French VPN could access Telegram servers from France since this block only affects our national territory. For example, iPhone users who have iCloud+ already have a VPN service by default on their devices, so they would not need to contract or configure an additional VPN.
Will the data be deleted during the block?
No, all your data and Telegram conversations will remain intact on Telegram servers. You do not need to back up that information or take it anywhere else. But if you are affected by the judicial block and cannot access it, until the judicial block is lifted or you access Telegram from an unblocked network (such as proxies or VPNs mentioned in the previous point), you will not have access to your data.
Does this imply the closure of Telegram in Spain?
Telegram, which has more than 800 million active users worldwide, does not have operational presence in Spain. This means that it does not have headquarters or employees managing any of the network in this country. Telegram was created by Pavel Durov, who remains its CEO today. Previously, Pavel was the creator of VK, the most popular social network in Russia as an alternative to Facebook. Telegram was already blocked in Russia in 2018 because its creator refused to provide information about its users to the government. This has not prevented Telegram from continuing to operate and being one of the most important communication channels today in that country.