The Spanish High Court has ordered encrypted messaging app Telegram to suspend its services in the country.

The use of the app has been temporarily suspended from Monday, following complaints from media companies including Atresmedia, Mediaset and Telefonica which said that the app was allowing users to upload their content without permission.

Judge Santiago Pedraz of the High Court has agreed for the app to be blocked in Spain while claims are investigated, with mobile phone network operators tasked with blocking services.

Telegram, which enables anonymised end-to-end encrypted messaging and has become a vital tool for journalists, was accused of "non-collaboration" and a "failure to enable the reporting of specific technical data," by Pedraz, who deemed the block as "necessary, appropriate, and proportionate."

Consumer association Facua meanwhile argued that the decision was "disproportionate" and would cause “significant harm” to its millions of Spanish users.

Ione Belarra, party leader of Spain’s left-wing Podemos, said that the block was "a threat to freedoms, unfair, censorious, and entirely disproportionate".

---