Telegram shares pirates’ details with Indian lawmakers

3 years ago 1

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Popular messaging app Telegram has provided Indian authorities with the names, phone numbers and IP addresses of channel admins on its platform accused of copyright infringement, LiveLaw India reports.

The development comes after the Delhi High Court ordered Telegram to share the data following a lawsuit by a teacher and skills centre.

Neetu Singh and KD Campus accused the platform of not doing enough to prevent the distribution of her copyrighted educational material by the perpetrators.

Telegram challenged the case, arguing that disclosing the user information would violate Singaporean law — the location of the physical data centres that held the data.

But the court found it would be “perfectly justified” in directing Telegram to adhere to Indian law and orders passed by Indian Courts to disclose relevant information relating to infringers.

“Infringers cannot be permitted to seek shelter under Telegram’s policies merely on the ground that its physical server is in Singapore,” the court ruled.

It also found that disclosing the information to Indian authorities would not violate Singaporean laws, as these provided an exception under which personal details could be shared if necessary for investigations.

According to LiveLaw, Justice Prathbia Singh subsequently confirmed that Telegram had shared the data with authorities in a ruling on 24 November 2022.

“Let copy of the said data be supplied to Id. Counsel for plaintiffs with the clear direction that neither the plaintiffs nor their counsel shall disclose the said data to any third party, except for the purposes of the present proceedings. To this end, disclosure to the governmental authorities/police is permissible,” read her ruling.

With almost 150 million users, India is one of Telegram’s biggest markets.

Although Telegram’s official policies state that it doesn’t allow the sharing of copyrighted material and claims it removes channels that host pirated content, TechCrunch recently reported the platform was still littered with easily discoverable channels where pirated movies and TV shows were being shared with tens of thousands of users.