PUTRAJAYA: The government will not follow the municipality of Amsterdam's decision to ban the use of the Telegram messaging application for civil servants just yet, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said.
He said any instructions related to security matters are typically handled by the Chief Government Security Officer (CGSO).
"At this time, we have not received any such instructions (to ban the use of Telegram)," he said during the post-cabinet meeting press conference, here.
Fahmi was responding to questions on whether the government would follow the steps of the municipality of Amsterdam, where it banned its civil servants from using Telegram on their work phones due to concerns over criminal activity and potential espionage.
The ban, which was implemented at the end of April but only recently made public, is attributed to fears that Telegram could be a haven for hackers, cybercriminals, and drug dealers, local media reported quoting a spokesperson for the municipality.
While no other Dutch municipalities have yet banned Telegram, the Dutch intelligence service AIVD had previously raised concerns about espionage threats from apps originating in countries with offensive cyber programs.
The service had also flagged apps such as the Russian VKontakte and the Chinese shopping apps Temu and AliExpress as being particularly risky.
Telegram, which boasts nearly a billion users globally and approximately 2 million users in the Netherlands, is now the largest app to be banned by a Dutch authority since the government prohibited TikTok on civil servants' phones last year.