The Moldovan government is considering a ban on Telegram as it seeks to tighten the grip on social media to stifle criticism, the leader of the Building Europe at Home (PACE) opposition party said Tuesday
CHISINAU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2022) The Moldovan government is considering a ban on Telegram as it seeks to tighten the grip on social media to stifle criticism, the leader of the Building Europe at Home (PACE) opposition party said Tuesday.
Moldova accused the Dubai-based messaging app last month of ignoring its requests for cooperation after Telegram accounts of several Moldovan top officials were reportedly hacked. The head of the Moldovan cybersecurity agency SIS said Monday that the government wished it could control Telegram chat groups, which it sees as a breeding ground for disinformation.
Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, PACE leader and a former senior official with the Moldovan police, said he had learned from his sources inside the Interior Ministry and the SIS that security agencies wanted to set up a task force to study legal precedent for regulating social media.
"The working group will be tasked with studying international practice, especially in the UAE and China, which would allow blocking several messaging applications in Moldova that they cannot control and that are used as alternative sources of information. Their first target is Telegram and Tiktok is next," he wrote on social media.
Moldova is also looking to buy spyware to read messages that Moldovans share on WhatsApp and Viber, Cavcaliuc said further. He claimed that the government was going to remove legal curbs on online surveillance by the SIS to allow it to wiretap anyone without a warrant.
