March 29, 2024

Roskomnadzor has unblocked the Telegram messenger in the territory of R

Roskomnadzor has unblocked the Telegram messenger in the territory of R

On June 18, Roskomnadzor unblocked the Telegram messenger in the Russian Federation in agreement with the Prosecutor General.

AtIn making the decision, the agency took into account the cooperation of the messenger leadership in the fight against the dissemination of information prohibited in Russia.

“We positively assess the readiness expressed by the founder of Telegram to counter terrorism and extremism”,” explains the regulator’s message.

Pavel Durov published a post about improving mechanisms for combating terrorism while “fully maintaining the secrecy of correspondence” in early June.

How will the procedure be implemented legally?unlocking is not yet entirely clear. Pavel Chikov, head of the human rights group "Agora", which represents the interests of Telegram in the ECHR, said that the blocking of Telegram was recognized as legal by three court decisions:

  • fine of a justice of the peace for failure to provide encryption keys;
  • the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the legality of the order of the FSB;
  • court decision on the legality of blocking.

He also recall that the messenger is included in the Register of organizers of the dissemination of information on the Internet.

"The decision to unlock Telegram, in our opinionunderstanding, should not lead to the loss of victim status in the ECHR and the removal of the case from consideration. Refusal to block the popular Internet service is a good step, testifying to the sanity of the authorities. However, the way it is made - the lack of recognition of violations, the refusal to pay compensation and the elimination of systemic problems of legislation and the practice of its application - reduces its value and does not in itself indicate a turn of Internet regulation in Russia towards protecting privacy. ”, wrote Chikov in his Telegram channel.

Let us remind you that Telegram was blocked in Russia bydecision of the Tagansky Court of Moscow in April 2018 for refusing to provide keys for decrypting user messages. The messenger's lawyers then explained that this requirement is technically and legally unenforceable.

It was not possible to completely restrict access to the messenger, however, as a result of attempts by Roskomnadzor to do this in Russia, access to hundreds of other sites and services was difficult.

In April 2020, deputies from the Fair PartyRussia" have developed a bill that would allow the blocking of Telegram to be lifted, explaining this by the social importance of the messenger during the pandemic. In June, the draft law was registered by the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

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