The Telegram messenger poses a potential threat due to the lack of measures to counter Russian propaganda.
The European Union is currently investigating this issue, as Vira Yurova, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, stated in an interview with Bloomberg.
She noted that Russia can spread fake news through Telegram, which lacks mechanisms to prevent such actions. She noted that the Russian messenger is especially popular in eastern EU member states, where a large Russian-speaking population lives.
The EU has a law that imposes specific obligations on online platforms with at least 45 million users within the bloc. However, Telegram claims it only has 42 million users in the EU, which is below that threshold.
“We are currently verifying this number. If it turns out to be more than 42 million, we’ll need to take a closer look at how Telegram works“, said the representative of the European Commission.
