Belgian Institute of Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT)

History

2024: Obtaining authority to supervise Telegram

In early May 2024, it became known about the creation of a body in the European Union to oversee the work of Telegram. The Belgian Institute of Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) will control the activities of the messenger.

The goal of the project is to limit the distribution of illegal content through Telegram. We are talking, in particular, about the trade in drugs and other illegal products and services. In addition, as the De Standaart resource notes, this messenger can be used by terrorist groups to coordinate actions.

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BIPT will monitor the operation of Telegram in accordance with the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), which covers large social networks, online stores, search engines, etc. The Belgian Institute was chosen as the Telegram regulator due to the fact that the Belgian company EDSR is the European representative of the messenger. In doing so, BIPT will have to work closely with various regulators.

Telegram is a platform that reluctantly interacts with governments, and therefore monitoring the messenger is a very difficult task, says Mathias Vermeulen of AWO Agency, a law firm.

In accordance with the rules in force in the EU for 2024, violation of the DSA requirements by a service whose number of active users exceeds 45 million people can be punished with a fine of up to 6% of world turnover. Earlier, the European Commission identified a list of very large online platforms (VLOP) and very large online search engines (VLOSE) that are subject to the DSA. Such services, in particular, included the social networks Facebook and Instagram (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization; activities in the Russian Federation are prohibited), LinkedIn, TikTok and Twitter (X).^[1]

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