A Spanish judge reversed the course of the case and suspended his controversial order temporarily suspending messaging app Telegram in the country pending a police report on the company, AFP reported.
On March 22, Judge Santiago Pedras of Spain's Supreme Court, which deals with sensitive cases, ordered a "temporary suspension" of Telegram after media companies complained that it violated their intellectual property rights by allowing users to upload content them without permission.
Consumer rights group Faqua criticized the decision as disproportionate and warned it would cause "enormous damage" to the platform's millions of users, and the app continued to operate in Spain.
"It's like shutting down the internet because there are websites that illegally host copyrighted content," said Facua Secretary General Ruben Sanchez.
The judge suspended his order to suspend the service pending a police report on the platform and "the impact the temporary suspension may have on users," the court said.
Telegram is an encrypted messaging platform that also allows users to create their own channels to broadcast content.
Pedraz issued the temporary suspension order after officials in the Virgin Islands, where Telegram is incorporated, failed to respond to a July 2023 court request for information.
The media companies - which Faqua named as Mediaset, Atresmedia, Movistar and Egeda - complained that their material was being used on Telegram without their consent.
The court requested information that would allow it to establish who was behind the accounts in question.
In the order, the judge said the lack of cooperation from the Virgin Islands prompted him to take this "precautionary measure."
The order complies with the principles of "necessity, expediency and proportionality," he added.
"There is no other measure that can stop the repetition of the condemned actions," he claimed.
Telegram reports that it has 700 million active monthly users worldwide. /BGNES
