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RFE/RL: Russia seeks to block Telegram in showdown over Internet freedom

Published April 6, 2018 at 9:14 pm

This illustration picture taken on April 6, 2018 in Moscow shows the Telegram messenger application displayed on the screen of a smartphone.Russia's telecoms watchdog on March 6, 2018 asked a Moscow court to block the popular messaging app Telegram, after a deadline for it to hand over encryption keys to security services expired.

Photo by AFP

Russia’s state media regulator has asked a court to block the messaging app Telegram following the company’s refusal to give the Federal Security Service (FSB) access to users’ messaging data.

In a statement on its website, Roskomnadzor said it had filed suit with Moscow’s Taganka district court on April 6 seeking “restrictions on access to…Telegram on the territory of Russia.”