Some Russian users are reporting that Telegram is no longer available for them after the Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor announced on Monday that it had sent notification to Telecom operators that Telegram access was being restricted.
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"Roskomnadzor has received the ruling of the Tagansky District Court to restrict access to the Internet resources of the Telegram Messenger Limited Liability Partnership information dissemination organizer on Russian territory. In connection with this, information about these Internet resources was sent to communications operators on Monday, April 16 to restrict access," Roskomnadzor said.
The blocking must be carried out within 24 hours. Roskomnadzor is also set to send requests to the AppStore and Google Play to delete the applications.
The announcement comes days after a Moscow district court authorized Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor to immediately block Telegram in Russia, without waiting for an appeal to be considered. According to the court, Telegram will remain blocked in the country until it provides encryption keys to Russian authorities.
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For his part, the messenger's CEO Pavel Durov has stated that Telegram would use built-in methods to bypass blocking, which do not require user action.
He also said that regardless of blocking, Telegram will retain the ability to send notices to all Russian users, informing them about the development of the situation.
The company was given 15 days until early April to comply but ultimately it refused to provide the FSB with the encryption keys.
Twitterians in the Russian segment of the internet rushed to comment on the ban.
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