Amsterdam authorities have recently introduced a ban on the use of the Telegram messenger on the working phones of municipal employees. The Dutch radio station BNR reported on this decision, which was actually implemented in April but not publicly disclosed at the time.
The ban was put in place due to concerns about the criminal use of the application and the potential risks associated with espionage. Alexander Sholtes, a representative of the Amsterdam municipality, referred to Telegram as a “refuge for hackers, cybercriminals, and drug dealers” in an interview with BNR.
Amsterdam now stands as the first city in the Netherlands to enforce such a ban, with other municipalities yet to follow suit. In fact, Faty Abdi, a member of the Amsterdam Council from the PVDA party, proposed in September to explore the option of a nationwide ban on Telegram, citing its alleged role in recruiting vulnerable teenagers for terrorist organizations.
Last year, Dutch intelligence agencies issued warnings about espionage threats stemming from applications developed in countries with “aggressive cyber programs,” such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. The Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Netherlands maintains a confidential list of prohibited applications that civil servants are not allowed to install on their work phones, including the Russian social network VKontakte and the Chinese Temu and AliExpress Trading Applications.
The ban on Telegram in Amsterdam is expected to impact nearly two million users of the application in the Netherlands, marking one of the most significant restrictions on the app since a nationwide ban on TikTok usage on work devices was implemented last year. Despite these limitations, Telegram continues to boast nearly a billion users globally.