A division of the European Fee (the EU’s govt model) referred to as the Joint Analysis Middle is main the investigation. Its purpose is to search out out whether or not Telegram has shared true person numbers for the EU. EU officers are making their very own calculations utilizing their very own techniques in an effort to decide how correct the person information offered by the corporate is, in response to Thomas Regnier, the EC’s spokesperson for digital points.
Telegram claimed to have 41 million customers within the EU earlier this 12 months. The corporate had to supply an upgraded determine this month, however reportedly it stated solely that it had “considerably fewer than 45 million common month-to-month lively recipients within the EU.” In keeping with officers, that failure to offer an precise quantity is a breach of the DSA. Officers consider the investigation will present that Telegram customers are greater than 45 million.
Why does this particular quantity matter? Nicely, it is the brink after which you are thought of a “very massive on-line platform” in response to EU rules. As a bigger platform, an organization is topic to stricter guidelines below the DSA, and fines for violations might be as much as six p.c of an organization’s annual income.
Telegram is alleged to have near 1 billion customers in whole.
It looks as if Telegram may be making an attempt to downplay its person numbers within the EU to keep away from stricter rules, which is fairly regarding. If the investigation exhibits they’ve extra customers than reported, I consider it might result in severe bother for the corporate, each legally and financially.