The head of communications department and regulator Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, said repeated efforts to secure the information had been ignored by the company and warned that “time is running out” for the app.
There is one requirement and it is simple: to fill in an application with information about the company that controls Telegram,” Zharov said in an open letter. “And to officially send it to Roskomnadzor to enter this data in the registry of organizers of distribution of information. In case of refusal… Telegram shall be barred in Russia until we receive the needed information.”
Telegram’s non-response seems to be down to the consequences of handing over the requested details: Doing so would effectively join it to the state regulators’ registry, which would require it to hold users’ chat histories and encryption keys and give them to authorities if asked, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The order isn’t the first time the Russian founders of Telegram Kremlin, Nikolai, and Pavel Durov have failed to comply with state demands. In 2014, the Durovs refused to turn over data on Ukranian users of Vkontakte, a social network interface they also set up together.
Telegram claims to split its encryption codes into separate data hubs around the world to ensure “no single government or block of like-minded nations can intrude on people’s privacy and freedom of expression”.
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