In India, an Indian court ordered the messaging app Telegram to share the details of channels involved in copyright infringement case in India after the company argued-unsuccessfully-that this act would violate its privacy policy with users.
This is not the first time this app came under criticism due to its privacy policy. The app has gained some notoriety after critics said it enabled extremist groups to communicate and grow their numbers. Earlier this year in Brazil, a court ordered Apple and Google to remove Telegram from their app stores because of how it was being used to spread misinformation. (The latter ban was lifted in three days after Telegram complied with removal requests.)

But this latest case seems to be the first time any court has ordered Telegram to turn over user data specifically related to copyright infringement anywhere, and the first instance in which an Indian court has ordered any app to disclose data related to copyright infringement.

The Delhi High Court directed a Dubai-headquartered firm to provide the details, such as mobile numbers, IP addresses and email IDs used for uploading infringing content while hearing a lawsuit filed by a teacher against the messaging app and people involved in sharing her copyrighted study material.

It said disclosing user information would violate its privacy policy and the laws of Singapore, where it has located its physical servers for storing user data.

But the court has responded to this argument saying that copyright owners couldn't be left "completely remediless against the actual infringers" because Telegram has chosen to locate its servers in Singapore.

Telegram didn't respond to a request for a comment on the order.

In the petition, a list of channels through which lectures and books by complainant Neetu Singh, allegedly on competitive exams, is reportedly being sold at low cost was submitted to the court by the complainant.

If there are any additional lists of infringing channels, the same shall also be submitted to Telegram within one week. The information pertaining to the infringing channels and the information regarding the devices/servers/networks upon which they are developed, their developers, operators including any telephone numbers, IP addresses, e-mail addresses, used for this purpose shall be shared by Telegram within a period of two weeks thereafter," the 51-page order (PDF) said.

Telegram, which has India as its biggest market, reached more than 700 million users last month. That was also when it introduced a paid tier to commercialize its growth at the expense of WhatsApp and Signal.

Public statements by Telegram about protecting user privacy made the platform gain the attention of many Indian users, as there is growing sentiment against WhatsApp amid its move to update privacy policy in 2021. Still, the Meta-owned app till now has managed to maintain domination of the South Asian market.