Telegram in India Shares Data of Users Accused of Copyright Violation

Telegram in India Shares Data of Users Accused of Copyright Violation
Photo: https://exame.com/brasil/telegram-firma-parceria-com-tse-para-combate-a-desinformacao-nas-eleicoes/ 30.11.2022 664

Telegram disclosed the data of the administrators of the channels that distributed "pirated" content, in compliance with a court order in India.

The case in question was filed by Ms. Neetu Singh, a teacher and author of English-language study materials that were illegally re-sold in a number of Telegram channels. 

The teacher said Telegram had not done enough to prevent unauthorized distribution of her course material on the platform.

In accordance with the Delhi Supreme Court ruling, Telegram disclosed the names of channel administrators, their phone numbers and the IP addresses of the channels accused of copyright infringement. 

Telegram argued that disclosing user information would violate the privacy policy and the laws of Singapore, where it has located its physical servers for storing users data. In response, the Indian court said the copyright owners couldn’t be left “completely remediless against the actual infringers” because Telegram has chosen to locate its servers outside the country.

The court order states that the offenders' data will be given to the plaintiffs “with the clear direction that neither the plaintiffs nor their counsel shall disclose the said data to any third party.”

“Telegram stores very limited or no data on its users. In most cases, we can’t even access any user data without specific entry points, and we believe this was the case here. Consequently, we can’t confirm that any private data has been shared in this instance,”

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told TechCrunch.

India is one of the largest markets for Telegram, which has amassed nearly 150 million users in the South Asian market.

Source: TechCrunch

digital markets  India 

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