The cabinet will come up with a bill within a few months that would allow police to look into private Telegram groups undercover.
Justice and Security Minister David van Weel recently told the Volkskrant that police are only allowed to "hang out" in open groups. "But as soon as you get into a group that's semi-closed, so where you have to press a link to get access to it, or one that's completely closed, so where you have to get an invitation, then it already stops for the police: then it's not allowed on the basis of Art. 3 of the Police Act, where case law shows that you're not allowed to have privacy-sensitive information. That's kind of the challenge with that modern social media, that you very quickly hit that limit."
Consequently, Van Weel is working on a bill that would give the police more powers. "You obviously infringe on people's privacy to a certain extent, so what we will also have to regulate is that there is a proper oversight role on that," the minister said.
