This lunchtime, to my surprise, a large number of Telegram channels to which I subscribe are censored and are now displaying the message “This channel cannot be displayed because it violated local laws.”
While all eyes were on Elon Musk‘s X platform, formerly Twitter, censorship has fallen where we least expected it. The list of victims includes the TASS news agency, which I used to follow for alternative information and is now declared illegal in Europe.
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Who is behind the censorship of Telegram?
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is behind the censorship of Telegram.
Coming into force on August 25 and championed by European Commissioner Thierry Breton, the text now provides a framework for digital activity in the European Union.
It is a European regulation imposing content moderation obligations on major digital platforms. It has raised serious concerns on social networks and among the opposition. European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who is in charge of promoting it, says, “It’s a lot more freedom, it’s a guarantee of our freedoms, it’s everything but the ministry of censorship.”
The European Commissioner wants to “put the major social networking platforms under surveillance.” These will have to do more to combat illegal content, on pain of heavy financial penalties – “6% of sales”, according to Thierry Breton – or even being banned in the European Union. “It’s everything but the Ministry of Censorship,” defends the senior civil servant.
List of closed Telegram channels:
Concretely, Europe has thus obtained the ban on around twenty Telegram channels (non-exclusive list):
- Brainlesschanel,
- Vbachir,
- Russiajournal,
- Russosphere,
- Tass_fr,
- RIn French,
- Erwan Kastel,
- StreetReporters1,
- InfodefFrance,
- Beaufabrice,
- Deep geopolitics,
- Boriskarpovblog,
- Ukr_leaks_fr
- Russiaukrainerussianworldlive,
- Punctual_crises,
- NewsFR,
- Chronicles_conflict_ukraine,
- EgountchiBehanzinOfficial,
- Kompromatmedia,
- Dedollarization of the world.
It’s worth noting that not a single media outlet, print or broadcast, has touched on the subject of Telegram channel closures.
How do we escape censorship?
Whether you are an iPhone or Android, blocking is based on the phone number used to register on Telegram.
Until we find a solution, you can buy a virtual phone number online in another country for just a few euros a month. Smartphone applications do just that. We’ll come back to alternative solutions once we’ve tested them. VPN isn’t enough.
Resistance to European Commission censorship is organized
Telegram’s phone number has been changed and replaced by a US number. We now have access to all channels.
Edit: You can also download Nicegram ! Telegram client with zero censorship (not tested). Thanks for the feedback for those doing the test.
One solution for foreign SMS messages is SMS Man, but plenty exist. See our article on Sonetel.
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