“Telegram is not a very large online platform, designated as such, and therefore DSA applies to Telegram as of the 17th of February 2024, this is the date when they will indeed, by which they need indeed to nominate a legal representative”, — Johannes Bahrke stated in response to a question from Oliver Grimm, a correspondent from an Austrian newspaper Die Presse. Oliver is concerned by violence, hate speech, and disinformation content found on Telegram and TikTok.
If a platform doesn’t comply with the Act in time, the European Commission may fine it with up to 6% of its annual turnover. In extreme cases, it can even ban the platform in the EU.
This requirement is a part of EU’s Digital Services Act, which was already enforced for large social media this August. The law improves the regulation of social networks and search engines in instances where users post illegal content. The Act requires platforms to combat unlawful content and hate speech, while also protects platforms from liability if they moderate the content responsibly.
The DSA doesn’t force the platforms to remove unwanted content automatically but demands the social networks to properly moderate it by any possible means and report their methods and results back to the government.