Russian authorities ban Telegram
Today's Friday 13th is indeed a bad day for the popular Telegram Messenger, since this messaging app is now no longer accessible to the many users it has in Russia. This decision does not come out of the blue since the Russian authorities asked for the keys needed to decrypt the users' messages sent via Telegram on more than just one occasion.
According to the Russian News Agency TASS, "Moscow’s Tagansky court satisfied the demand of Russia’s telecommunications watchdog and blocked access to the Telegram messenger in Russia over its failure to furnish keys to the Federal Security Service to decrypt user messages, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom."
Obviously, this ban will be active until Telegram Messenger complies with the demands of the Federal Security Service. Since Telegram's founder, Pavel Durov, has recently stated that "Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed," it looks like Telegram Messenger users based in Russia should find another similar service to use. Sadly, once a similar service becomes popular in the area while remaining secure, it will become the government's next target.
Telegram has not issued any statement regarding this development yet, but we will get back to this topic as soon as they do. As sad as it looks, the price of freedom in Russia nowadays seems to be freedom itself.
