Spain’s High Court suspended its Telegram ban on Monday. The court had issued an order to temporarily ban the messaging app over copyright infringement allegations.
The court now awaits a detailed report from the national police on the potential impact of such a ban on the app’s users.
Judge Suspends Order to Ban Telegram
Judge Santiago Pedraz, who issued the order to ban Telegram on Friday, March 22, said “users could use proxies and VPNs [virtual private networks] that allow them to hide their virtual location,” and essentially bypass the ban.
Pedraz also described the proposed ban as “excessive” and “non-proportional,” particularly due to its undue prejudice against lawful users and its economic implications for entities relying on Telegram for secure communication.
Spain is not the first country to consider banning Telegram. According to Surfshark, the app has been temporarily or permanently banned in 30 countries since 2015, affecting over three billion people. In many countries where messaging apps like Telegram are blocked, users turn to VPNs to change their IP address and circumvent the restrictions.
We tested over 70 VPN services, and Surfshark emerged as the best VPN for Spain. This VPN is highly rated by users who are concerned about privacy and want unrestricted access to apps and online content.
Telegram Ban Would Negatively Affect About 8.5 Million Users in Spain
Pedraz initially agreed to suspend Telegram’s services in Spain following copyright infringement allegations from media companies like Atresmedia, EGEDA, Mediaset, and Telefonica.
According to DW News, Pedraz “issued the order after officials in the Virgin Islands, where Telegram is registered, failed to respond to a court request from July 2023. The court wanted information that would allow it to identify who was behind the accounts in question that were uploading apparently pirated content.”
After backtracking on the decision, Pedraz stated on Monday that a ban would be “a clear prejudice to those millions of users who use it (the vast majority without any links to illicit activities),” and these users “would be prevented from performing professional tasks,” Spain’s elDiario newspaper reported.
After the court’s initial decision to suspend Telegram, many Spaniards turned to VPNs to secure access to the app.
“We can confirm that we noticed an increased demand for VPN services in Spain recently. According to Google Trends, the number of Google searches with the keyword VPN increased by nearly three times in Spain on 23 March and remained higher than usual,” popular VPN provider NordVPN told VPNOverview.
How to Bypass a Telegram Ban
It’s unclear if Spain will eventually proceed with the decision to ban Telegram. Some of our readers in Spain have confirmed that they can access the app without any issues.
If you are one of the 8.5 million people in Spain who use Telegram, we highly recommend you get Surfshark and secure your access to the app if the ban ever becomes a reality. Surfshark has servers across the globe, so you can easily spoof your location and access Telegram anonymously.
Follow these steps to bypass a Telegram ban:
- Subscribe to Surfshark.
- Download the VPN app on your device.
- Open the Surfshark app and log in with your credentials.
- Connect to a server outside of Spain.
- Access Telegram and other apps freely.
For more news, follow us on X (Twitter), Threads, and Mastodon!
