Telegram under scrutiny from EU officials about potentially lying about user count

Telegram has recently been brought under scrutiny which even got the messaging app’s CEO arrested… one would think that once the Telegram CEO was charged, the problems for the app will be over. Well, not really, and now EU officials are reportedly concerned that Telegram could have lied about user numbers to skirt regulations. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is now facing criminal charges in France, and now the company itself seems to be getting in trouble with the European Union. Right now, EU officials are investigating whether the platform lied about its user numbers to avoid being regulated under the Digital Services Act, otherwise known as DSA.

A department of the European Commission (the EU’s executive brand) called the Joint Research Center is leading the investigation. Its aim is to find out whether Telegram has shared true user numbers for the EU. EU officials are making their own calculations using their own systems in order to determine how accurate the user data provided by the company is, according to Thomas Regnier, the EC’s spokesperson for digital issues.

Telegram claimed to have 41 million users in the EU earlier this year. The company had to provide an upgraded figure this month, but reportedly it said only that it had “significantly fewer than 45 million average monthly active recipients in the EU.” According to officials, that failure to give an actual number is a breach of the DSA. Officials believe the investigation will show that Telegram users are more than 45 million.

Why does this specific number matter? Well, it’s the threshold after which you’re considered a “very large online platform” according to EU regulations. As a larger platform, a company is subject to stricter rules under the DSA, and fines for violations can be up to six percent of a company’s annual revenue.

Telegram is said to have close to 1 billion users in total.

It seems like Telegram might be trying to downplay its user numbers in the EU to avoid stricter regulations, which is pretty concerning. If the investigation shows they have more users than reported, I believe it could lead to serious trouble for the company, both legally and financially.