A contentious decision by a Spanish court to temporarily ban the Telegram messaging app countrywide has been rescinded.
Judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain’s High Court on Monday halted his order to suspend the Telegram messaging app.
On Friday, Pedraz issued an injunction in response to complaints from media businesses such as Atresmedia, EGEDA, Mediaset, and Telefonica regarding Telegram’s unapproved uploading practices.
The decision was criticised by the consumer rights organisation Facua, which compared it to shutting down the internet or television channels in response to rare instances of copyright infringement.
Monday was supposed to be the start of the judge’s order, but he has since altered his mind—at least temporarily—and requested a report from the General Commissariat of Information.
After his original ruling on Friday, operators were considered to be facing significant technological challenges in trying to prohibit Telegram.
Pedraz decided to stop Telegram’s services in Spain on Monday until the allegations were looked into.
The court source stated that it was the duty of cell carriers to prevent Telegram from operating.
Following officials’ failure to reply to a July 2023 court request, the judge issued the order in the Virgin Islands, where Telegram is registered.
To determine the identity of the person(s) behind the aforementioned accounts that were uploading what appeared to be pirated content, the court requested information.
He had to take this “precautionary measure,” the judge stated in the judgement on Friday, because the Virgin Islands had not cooperated.
The Spanish consumer union FACUA expressed its gratitude to the magistrate for “letting him reflect on the enormous impact of his measure” and expressed the hope that the police report would force him to reverse the ruling.