Why Telegram addresses were mistakenly blocked this weekend

For several hours this Saturday, links to Telegram messaging were blocked. Internet users were sent to the site of the Ministry of the Interior and were accused of having “attempted” to “connect to a site containing images of child pornography  ”, reports Le Monde .

If the operation of the rest of the Telegram application has not been affected by this “human error” according to the police , the situation has questioned many Internet users and elected officials. Indeed, the government had presented Wednesday a bill providing for extending this blocking system to fight against “digital insecurity” .

A desire to block child pornography sites

The “t.me” URLs, affected by the blocking, normally link to a specific account, channel or content within a channel within Telegram. The police, according to information from Le Monde , had sent to French Internet service providers (ISPs) a blocking request concerning these URLs, except that it was applied to all of the “t.me” addresses and not only to those referring to child pornography content.