OREANDA-NEWS. The Russian social network VKontakte and the Telegram messenger created by its co-founder Pavel Durov were included in the European Commission's "Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist. In this document, the latest version of which was published on December 14, the popular Russian social network and messenger appeared for the first time.

The "Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist" is formed on the basis of information from groups of copyright holders and includes several sections, including online retailers, offline retail chains and online pharmacies suspected of selling counterfeit goods, as well as a section with Internet sites that distribute unlicensed content. This year, the Social Media section has been added to the list. The European Commission document notes that online piracy is not the main business for the organizations included in it. However, the reason for inclusion on the list is that some copyright holders are unhappy with the growing popularity of groups on social networks posting copyrighted content without permission.

The document published by the media claims that VKontakte users can get access to "pirated" films and series, including with the help of built-in video players, as well as books, including textbooks. Thanks to the search function, users can easily find such content. Although the social network responds to complaints from copyright holders and blocks "pirated" movies and music, a large number of illegal files are still available, and sufficient measures are not taken to prevent repeated violations.

The claims of the copyright holders to Telegram are about the same. According to them, users create public groups in the messenger in which they share unlicensed films, music, books and promote illegal streaming services. In addition, the messenger actively exchanges links to other sites hosting copyrighted content. Russian "VKontakte" and Telegram were the only figures on the list in the social media category.