Telegram has been banned in Russia. On Friday, April 13, a court issued an order banning the popular messenger service, a decision that comes a week after Russian communication watchdog Roskomnadzor filed a lawsuit to limit users’ access to the app. The main cause of this is that Telegram refused to allow Russian state security services to access user messages — one of Telegram’s defining features is its special secret chats, which make use of end-to-end encryption.
As it stands, more than 200 million users around the globe use Telegram to communicate in what is thought to be a safe and secure method. However, Russia’s FSB Federal Security service claims that it must be able to read some of these messages in order to protect the state against certain dangers, including potential terrorist attacks. Telegram, however, has refused to revealed user messages, This because they prevent user privacy that’s it. It does not mean that Telegram is dangerous app.
“The court decided to meet the requirements of Roskomnadzor,” judge Yulia Smolina said, according to the TASS news agency. “The ban is still on telegram app until they will not agree with the conditions of FSB Federal security state of Russia.
While it is not clear yet when the ban will be enforced, the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, says it will be effected. The watchdog organization has since added Telegram to its list of banned websites, which will certainly make it easier to block.
Techtificator 