Telegram blocked in Russia

A Russian court has approved the country’s media regulator Roskomnadzor’s decision to block the Telegram messaging app. The regulator had sought the key to decode the service’s encryption system, but Telegram had refused.

The decision reignites the conflict between a state’s desire to monitor (for security reasons in the best case, but possibly for other reasons) and users and providers desire to maintain privacy.

Telegram is widely used in Russia and claims to have 200 million active users globally. In part it is its very strong emphasis on privacy and encryption that has helped it build such as user base, and has led to claims that it is used by terrorist groups.

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