Telegram Remains Crucial in Challenging US Social Media Monopoly

The survival of Telegram remains critical in ensuring that there is not a western monopoly on the global social media ecosystem, an Indian think tank chief has told Sputnik India.

"I believe that Telegram plays a very critical role in the global information ecosystem as it is the only major non-western platform not influenced by the collective West, or any government for that matter. We must not forget that the messenger has also had issues with governments of Russia and China. In the case of China, Telegram played a crucial role in shielding the privacy of pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong," stated Dr Abhinav Pandya, the Director and CEO of Usanas Foundation.

Further, the Indian expert underlined that the social media platform had done a commendable job in propagating information and ideas from a non-western perspective, which was because it had refused to buckle to pressure of western censors.

"By suppressing and moderating Telegram, there is an attempt at curtailing free flow of ideas and views which don't necessary fall in line with those of the Western governments. The platform's role is extremely important in the information age that we are living in," Pandya argued.

The expert highlighted that there was always an "element of politicisation" associated with networks such as the platform due to its expanding user base, which estimates suggest is close to 900 million users at present.

The pressure on the messenger to fall in line with the West had only increased due to the volatile geopolitical landscape.

"The Telegram CEO's arrest is an attempt by the West to mould the information warfare operations in their favour. Telegram has been playing an important role in facilitation information exchanges, much to the anxiety of western powers which would like to keep an eye on these developments like they have been trying to do with other platforms," Pandya reckoned, pointing out to recent revelations by Meta indicating alleged pressure from the US government.

The views of the Indian expert resonate with that of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said on Tuesday that Durov had been detained in France on "someone's advice". Some media reports, according to A News, have suggested that Durov may have been arrested on request of Volodymyr Zelensky.

Durov was detained in Paris last week over allegations that his network was complicit in drug trafficking, fraud, child abuse and other illegal activities. Telegram has stated that it abides by EU's law and that its moderation was well within "industry standards and constantly improving".

"While there are concerns that the software has been used by shady entities such as drug dealers, militant groups, extortionists, etc, I would argue that these concerns aren't specific to Telegram alone. We have confirmed reports of militant groups also using end-to-end encryption services like WhatsApp and VoIP for communicating among themselves," Pandya stressed.

Meanwhile, according Statista data, there are over 104 million Telegram users in India, the highest for any country. The end-to-end encrypted platform is widely used by students preparing for competitive examinations as well as those engaging in the stock market community, which is mainly because of the fact that its group chat feature allows 200,000 users, dwarfing WhatsApp, which has a limit of 1,024 users.

The next largest markets for the instant messaging app are Russia and Indonesia with nearly almost 34 million and 27 million users respectively.

In India the media platform is regulated by the provisions of Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.

In this light, Pavan Duggal, a cybersecurity expert and lawyer at Supreme Court, said that any messenger was obliged to "ensure compliance" even if it is out of the country.

"The law is not bothered whether you are physically located in India or not, so long as your services are made available on computers or computer networks physically located in India. You get amenable under the Section 2(1)(w) of IT Act, 2000 and you become liable to be prosecuted by the government if you don't comply with the parameters of the act."

The regulation of intermediaries operating in India, including Telegram, was the task of nodal agency MeitY. However, according to the expert, a criminal investigation goes outside the ambit of Ministry of Electronics and IT. That would be a policing or a law enforcement function, which would come under the ambit of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Duggal concluded.

* Meta is banned in Russia as extremist organisation