Telegram has started blocking the Telegram channel of the Russian news agency RIA Novosti in European countries, the exact timing of this measure is unknown. As of the weekend, the channel is no longer accessible to users in Belgium, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Austria, Poland, Spain, and the Czech Republic, among other countries.
Users trying to access the channel with a phone number from one of these countries, and possibly others, are shown a message stating that the channel violates local laws. Telegram, however, could not provide concrete examples of law violations when asked by the agency’s correspondents.
RT DE has verified the blocking of RIA Nowosti in Germany and Austria, and the agency reports the same for users in the other listed EU member states.
According to RIA Nowosti, the channel’s news was accessed over 250,000 times daily by users with European mobile numbers registered on their devices.
Apparently, the Telegram channels of the newspaper Izvestia (IZ.ru) and other major Russian media are also affected by the new blocking measure.
The Telegram channels of RT DE and other RT family senders have been blocked for European users since the spring of 2022. When users from Germany and Austria try to access a RT channel, they are shown the same message, which is seen as a consequence of EU broadcasting bans against RT, whereas no EU-wide broadcasting bans have been issued against RIA Nowosti and Izvestia, yet.
According to users from Switzerland, the Telegram channels of RT DE, RIA Nowosti, and IZ.ru remain accessible with Swiss mobile numbers.
Anatoly Shariy, a Ukrainian journalist and blogger living in Spain, commented on the censorship measures, saying:
“The Telegram channels of RIA Novosti, RT, and Izvestia are blocked in Europe. The owners of European SIM cards can no longer see them. The clever minds of the European Commission have already decided what can be read and what cannot.”
In a subsequent post, Shariy, who considers himself a European, vents his frustration further:
“With this blockage of the media, the impression is completed that EU citizens are only slaves and obedient, dumb sheep. We should simply pay taxes and not think about anything. The EU Commission takes care of the rest.
A tangled 1984!