When judges decide that reverse is the way forward

As expected, Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraz on Monday reconsidered his decision to suspend instant messaging app Telegram in Spain and instead wait for a Police report about the platform and the impact the move could have on users.

What should any police report on Telegram look at?

First of all, Telegram may be less popular than the market leader, WhatsApp, but it is widely used in Spain and in many other countries by all types of individuals, companies and institutions, and its structure allows, in addition to sending messages between users, the creation of public and private groups or channels. Obviously, any communications platform is likely to be used for the exchange of copyrighted materials, as could happen through many other electronic or even physical means.

Secondly, Telegram offers end-to-end encryption, which prevents even the company that operates the service from knowing what its users are up to, unless they specifically create a public group. In the case of encrypted communications, the company does not possess any data , and so far it has never provided a single piece of user information to third parties, including governments, and has justified legal grounds for not doing so.

Third, and no less important: Telegram has widely publicized communication channels through…