Telegram banned: Russia may block the messenger app starting April 1
17 February 14:11
The Telegram messenger will allegedly be completely blocked in Russia in a month and a half.
This is according to Russian propaganda media outlets, citing their own sources from several agencies, as reported by Komersant.
According to the media’s interlocutors, Roskomnadzor will begin a total block of the Telegram messenger on April 1, similar to Instagram and Facebook.
The sources also specify that after the block, the application will not be available for download in the country. There has been no official confirmation of this information from Roskomnadzor.
At the same time, the Duma stated that Telegram will not be completely blocked, but restrictions will only be imposed on certain channels that spread fake news or prohibited information.
Roskomnadzor introduced new restrictions on Telegram on February 10. According to the agency, the reason for the slowdown in the messenger’s work was a violation of Russian laws. Roskomnadzor emphasized that it will continue to take measures against the messenger. Since last summer, voice calls in Telegram have already been blocked.
Against this backdrop, Russian users of the messenger reported a serious malfunction in the messenger’s operation. According to the service “Sboy.RF,” about 10,000 complaints were received on February 10 alone. Users complained that messages were not being sent, media was not loading, the program would not start, and the web version was unstable.
As specified by the Tagansky District Court of Moscow, seven protocols have been registered against Telegram for refusing to remove prohibited content and for non-compliance with the law on self-control. The messenger faces fines totaling 64 million rubles.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov responded to the restrictions on the messenger in Russia on his English-language channel. He linked this to an attempt to impose on Russians “a state-controlled application designed for surveillance and political censorship.”
