A Moscow court on Friday ordered that access to the Telegram messenger service should be blocked in Russia after months of battles with the media regulator, Roskomnadzor.
The country’s main security agency, FSB, also claim that Telegram is the messenger of choice for international terrorist organisations in Russia.
However, Telegram’s lawyer Pavel Chikov, said the official attempt to stop the app being used in Russia was without justification.
“The FSB’s requirements to provide access to private conversations of users are unconstitutional, baseless, which cannot be fulfilled technically and legally,” Chikov said.
Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging service that launched in 2013. The chat app presently have 200 million active users. Here’s How The World Is Reacting:
Not unexpected but still a bit shocking: court rules to block #Telegram messenger in Russia for refusal to hand over encryption keys to security services: a requirement said to be impossible to implement on a technical level – not to mention detrimental to free expression.
— Yulia Gorbunova (@yuliagorbunova_) 13 April 2018
Just in: Russian court upholds gov decision to block Telegram, a popular homegrown messenging app that used by millions domestically.
The Russian government wants Russians to use Facebook’s WhatsApp? https://t.co/4VvmKenppS
— Yasha Levine (@yashalevine) 13 April 2018
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More @telegram users expected after today‘s ban from Russia (VPN)
— Russian Market (@russian_market) 13 April 2018
So, Telegram just was blocked in Russia by a court decision. Suddenly, all started to set up proxies, big companies and organisations and common people. Because we love @telegram!
— Gwindor Lissësûl (@GwindorL) 13 April 2018
Why wouldn’t the Russian government ban Tinder instead of #Telegram? I find dumb ugly bitches a way more serious and constant danger to the society than alleged terrorists.
— JK (@Jamiroqman) 13 April 2018
If Russia bans @telegram , then we know we're using the right platform, especially considering the reason behind the blocking of this service#telegramrules
— Franz Fifty (@franzfifty) 13 April 2018
Russia orders immediate block of Telegram messaging app. It will have some serious imapct on Russian ICO's. The crypto community is connected on telegram. No. of members in an ICO group is considered as benchmark for a successful ICO. #Telegramживи #telegramban #bitcoin
— Kashif Raza (@simplykashif) 13 April 2018
Russia is really transforming into China
just without a well running economy#TelegramBan @durov
— Markus Obermeier (@MarkusObermeie1) 13 April 2018
Russian politician said that banned VK in Ukraine is not ok. One year later they will ban Telgram:) Logics:) #Telegram #TelegramDown
— Женя (@jminukov) 13 April 2018
My idea is that #Telegram ban in Russia has very few to do with national security and a lot to do with Telegram's ICO and future cryptocurrency market strategies.
— Andrea Bianco (@andrea_bianco) 13 April 2018
Photo Credit: Getty