Telegram is facing an EU investigation. EU authorities do not believe the company’s reports on user numbers.
The service has been going through a turbulent period since last week. Its founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France. Although French and EU officials claim not to be involved in this investigation, it is said that an investigation into the Telegram application will be launched.
Telegram is said to have misreported its user numbers in the European Union to avoid stricter regulations. The European Union will assess whether Telegram accurately disclosed its monthly active users in 27 countries.
Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), services with more than 45 million monthly users in Europe are considered “very large platforms”. Large platforms will be subject to stricter rules on content control, advertising transparency and data protection.
Telegram claimed to have 41 million users in the European Union earlier this year. However, when asked for more data, it did not provide a specific number, only indicating that it was less than 45 million. EU authorities suspect that the real number of Telegram users in Europe is higher than 45 million.
If it is proven that you have misreported your statistics, you could face serious penalties under the DSA. As a result, fines of up to 6% of your company’s annual global revenue could be imposed. With around 1 billion users worldwide, the financial penalties could hit your company hard.
The investigation is the result of a crackdown on Telegram and its CEO Pavel Durov. French authorities filed a criminal complaint against Durov, alleging that Telegram failed to comply with terrorism and propaganda requests.
Source: pplware.sapo.pt
