A Moscow court cleared the way on Friday for
the government to ban Telegram, the messaging app, over its
failure to give Russian security services the ability to read
users’ encrypted messages.
Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications and technology
watchdog, had asked the court for the authority to block the
app, and for the ban to take immediate effect. It took the court
all of 18 minutes to grant the request, after scheduling the
hearing just one day before. Telegram had ordered its lawyers
to skip the hearing in protest of the hurried process.
The ruling came a month after Telegram lost a lawsuit it
brought against the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B.,
Russia’s powerful and secretive security agency, which had
demanded access to messages. The Kremlin pushed through
a sweeping antiterrorism law in 2016 that mandated providing
the security services backdoor access to encrypted
applications, among other measures.
Telegram said last month that it now has 200 million active
monthly users, many of them in the lands of the former Soviet
Union and the Middle East. Because of its strong privacy
protections, it has long been a favorite of the Islamic State
and other extremist groups.

There was no immediate comment from Pavel Durov, the
Telegram founder, a Russian who fled the country in 2014
after losing control of the Russian social network Vkontakte,
which he had also created.
He and other experts have said that the Kremlin is asking the
impossible, because encryption happens at the individual user
level and there is no universal key.
The ban puts the Kremlin in a slightly awkward position
because Telegram is widely used by government agencies,
including by President Vladimir V. Putin’s press office.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, after announcing
his daily conference call on Telegram, first declined to
comment and then said the company should follow the law.

“There is a certain legislation that demands certain data to be
passed to certain services of the Russian Federation,” he said,
adding that his office would switch to an alternative app as
soon as Telegram stopped functioning.
But government officials have said that it could easily be
replaced. The Foreign Ministry announced that it was moving
to Viber, the news agency Interfax reported.
Telegram has the right to appeal, a process that could take
from 10 days to a month. But the court gave Roskomnadzor
the express right to shut the service down immediately, and it
was not immediately clear which approach might be followed.
https://www.freshstuffs.com.ng/2018/04/russia-to-ban-telegram-app.html?m=1

this is not good!

SamuelAnyawu

A new Cold War is on. Won't be surprised all this getting into everyone's business is part of Russia's last ditch efforts to mop up every extra bit of spy gist.

IdeyFindWife:

A new Cold War is on. Won't be surprised all this getting into everyone's business is part of Russia's last ditch efforts to mop up every extra bit of spy gist.

I love the way you think

What the hell is telegram

Why the ban? Telegram is the most covered app I've ever used in terms of security and advancement.

That's not good na...

Iscoalarcon:
What the hell is telegram

Google could help

Wiziman:
Why the ban? Telegram is the most covered app I've ever used in terms of security and advancement.

that's the reason for the ban

freshkpomo:
that's the reason for the ban

Alright. but is it necessarily right for government to know all you're doing online?

Wiziman:
Alright. but is it necessarily right for government to know all you're doing online?

what happened to RIGHT TO LIFE!

Ejadike:
That's not good na...

oyibo people have been spying on us since 1900AD

freshkpomo:
Google could help

what da hell is google

Iscoalarcon:
what da hell is google

seen could answer that