Telegram has come under the eye of the storm: thealternative messaging app to WhatsApp osrefereedozens of groups where you can read pirated magazines and newspapers for free or paying a few euros a month. The editorial products would arrive directly on the user's phone who, in this way, is not forced to subscribe or buy a online newspaper to be able to read it.
Illicit use of the messaging app led to the City Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FIEG) to ask the Communications Authority (AGCOM) to suspend Telegram in the city. Not of individual groups, of the entire platform. The messaging app is among the most used in the world and has a particular feature: it was designed to be totally safe and encrypted and therefore it is almost impossible to control what happens inside it, both by hackers and by the authorities. For this reason, it can also be used for illegal purposes, such as piracy.
FIEG against Telegram: what happened in the last few days?
Through a press release published on the official website on April 14, FIEG asked AGCOM to suspend the messaging app in our country. Not individual groups or channels, but the entire system used by millions of people around the world. The request was announced by Andrea Riffeser Monti, the President of FIEG.
The monitored Telegram channels are about ten: they are completely dedicated to the illicit dissemination of magazines and newspapers of different types. The registered users to such groups are approx 580mila, with a 46% increase in the last three months and an 88% increase in the number of newspapers distributed illegally.
On the basis of these data, FIEG has elaborated an estimate of the losses which is around 670 thousand euros per day, which correspond to 250 million per year. Following this analysis, Riffeser Monti goes on to say that this practice causes enormous damage to the whole sector. The risk is to destroy the work of thousands of people who make up the production chain of the press: publishers, journalists, distributors, press, polygraphy, distributors and newsagents. The press release concludes by saying that all these professionals are "committed, among many sacrifices, to guaranteeing the continuity of a primary asset, such as information, which, as never before, is called upon to fulfill its highest legal function. constitutionally guaranteed ".
Piracy on Telegram
Already in 2019, copies of the most famous magazines were circulating undisturbed on Telegram and WhatsApp. The Postal Police had opened an investigation and the users had been punished with hefty fines. There were 10 thousand people caught red-handed and risking fines of 24 thousand euros for downloading online magazines to your phone instead of buying them at full price from authorized channels.
Publishers are calling for Telegram to be suspended in the city
