Russia Seeks To Ban Telegram Messaging App

Telegram is the latest social platform to be targeted as the Russian government seeks to exert greater control over online communications. Similar disputes and threats have been made against major social platforms since legislation passed in 2016, which required messaging services to provide authorities with the capability to decrypt online conversations.

The results have been varied. Earlier this year, Instagram agreed to remove certain posts from opposition figure Alexander Navalny under threat of legal action, although Youtube - which is owned by Google - refused to take similar action. Twitter says it will host Russian user data inside the country following pressure from Moscow. Facebook rejected similar demands.

Telegram says it cannot comply with this demand because it employs end-to-end encryption.

If Russia pursues the ban, it will need to coordinate with internet service providers (ISPs) to block domains and IP addresses used by the app. This was done in Iran during anti-government protests late in 2017.

However, as in Iran, such restrictions can be easily bypassed through the use of a virtual private network (VPN) or proxy server, which can funnel a user's data through a country where the service is not blocked.

 Russia and many nations in the Middle East is said to be using the Telegram messaging App. It claims to have more than 200 million active users. Its popularity has grown rapidly because of its emphasis on encryption which thwarts many widely used methods of reading confidential communications.

Telegram is also currently trying to raise funds for expansion via an Initial Coin Offering. This involves investors buying into a crypto-currency, called Gram, created and run by the firm. So far, it is believed to have raised about $1.7bn (£1.2bn) via this funding scheme.

Russia started legal proceedings to block the Telegram messaging app in the country because the firm has refused to hand over encryption keys used to scramble messages.

Telegram, which is based in Dubai, was given a deadline of 4th April to hand over the keys to breaking the encryption codes placed over messages. The Telegram company have refused to hand over the keys to the Russia government because of the way their service was built. The Telegram Messaging service was built with an end to end encryption, hence denying the Messaging service access to its users messages.

The FSB (Russia's main security agency) placed a demand for the key so that it can have access to users messages and prevent future terrorist attacks in the country.

In its court filing, the Roskomnadzor media regulator said the legal action was related to the FSB request and Telegram's non-compliance with its legal requirements as a "distributor of information". Telegram's lawyer, Pavel Chikov, said the official attempt to stop the app being used in Russia was "groundless".

In a statement, he said: "The FSB's requirements to provide access to private conversations of users are unconstitutional, baseless, which cannot be fulfilled technically and legally."