The Moscow court has ordered telecommunications companies to block the Telegram application in Russia, with the exception that the message app denied access to encrypted messages for users. Just weeks after the ICO Telegram project earned $ 1.7 billion from investors.
Telegram Group Inc., which is run by Russian founder Pavel Durov, is accused of failing to comply with local law, based on Friday's verdict by Tagansky court judge Yuliya Smolina. The Russian media monitoring agency Roskomnadzor immediately limits its access to approved users. The appeal period is within 30 days.
Durov reassured Russian users on VK.com's social networking site after it ruled that Telegram would use built-in methods to bypass the block. Durov said in a message posted on Telegram, the company is completely separate from the power that local governments often have for IT companies because "the Telegram does not care about revenue sources or advertising sales. "
According to research from Mediascope, the Virgin Islands company has more than 9.5 million users in Russia. The report said last month that global viewership exceeded 200 million users, fueled by the world's largest ICO attention, creating a blockchain network that handles instant transactions. many times, and crypto for Telegram users.
Encryption key
Because Telegram was recognized as the leading channel in disseminating information in Russia, the company was required to provide a decryption key to the Russian Federal Security Service to read the messages of suspected terrorists. Telegram fought on the grounds that the decision was unconstitutional, but was rejected by the Supreme Court last month.
Roskomnadzor warned on March 20 that Telegram had 15 days to comply. After Durov publicly refused to provide encryption keys to the authorities, the watchdog moved the case to court for the purpose of blocking access to the messenger. With the court ruling, Roskomnadzor will include Telegram in the list of banned internet sources and will order national media service providers to restrict access. Roskomnadzor announced on its website that it would begin the process of intercepting the Telegram once it received a ruling from the court.
Appeal
Agora, a human rights group, defended Telegram in a Russian court, claiming that its lawyers had ignored "jokes heard today" and "planned resistance." ruling. "
"After Russia blocked LinkedIn and the RuTracker data sharing site, they lost a large number of readers, although some users have switched to TOR browsers and proxy servers to access them," said Karen Kazaryan, a an analyst at the Raec internet lobbying group.
Russian telegraph spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the crackdown was "unfortunate", but Kremlin officials will find alternatives.
President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill in 2016 on counterterrorism, including requiring text services provided to authorized agencies to decrypt user communications.
Delayed in the end
The Court's decision on Telegram aims to make one of the delaying media companies bow to Putin's efforts to track electronic messages. Durov in June signed up for the service with the state media oversight agency after threatening a ban on terrorism charges using Telegram to plot a suicide bomb attack.
Telegram does not require the user to know each other's phone number to communicate, just the device name. Thousands of different operating system users can chat privately securely and share many types of attachments. Durov, who was forced to sell the remaining stake in Russia's largest social network, VK, for a friendly Kremlin billionaire in 2014, said the Telegram could not be bought - at any cost.