Telegram Unblocking Bill Submitted to RF State Duma

06/15/2020

Lena Dzhess

A draft law allowingremove the lock from the Telegram messenger, registered in the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

In the explanatory note, its authors are deputies from“Fair Russia” Alexander Terentev, Fedot Tumusov and Dmitry Ionin - argue that the messenger is used by officials as “one of the main information resources” and performs an important social function, especially during a pandemic.

They propose to spell out the concept of “official service” in the law “On Communications”, that is, it is used by state bodies to exercise their powers.

The note says that Telegram remains availablefor Russians to download and use, and a complete blocking of Telegram, according to Deputy Head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation Alexei Volin, “does not seem possible.”

«Volin also confirmed that the decision onBlocking a service does not technically mean a ban on its use. Thus, the use of the Telegram messenger in Russia is legal, and its further blocking is inappropriate.

Head of «RosKomSvoboda» ArtemKozlyuk, in a comment to The Insider, found it strange that a separate bill was created to unblock Telegram. He expressed concern that the document would become a reincarnation of the “white lists of sites”, the creation of which Roskomnadzor has repeatedly talked about.

Earlier, the initiative of the deputies to unblock Telegram was supported by its founder Pavel Durov.

The messenger has been formally blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation since April 2018 for refusing to provide the FSB with keys for decrypting user messages.