The Russian government has moved to ban popular messaging app Telegram within the country. Due to new anti-terrorism laws, government authorities must be given backdoor access to encrypted applications. The courts decision comes after Telegram missed its deadline on April 4th to provide authorities with the app’s encryption keys. The ban will remain in place until the company provides the Federal Security Service(FSB) the ability to decrypt user messages.
“There is a certain legislation that demands certain data to be passed to certain services of the Russian Federation,”
Dmitri S. Peskov, Kremlin spokesman
With over 200 million user telegram, Telegram is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. However, the app has gained the reputation of being the messaging app of choice among terrorist groups thanks to its use of encryption to ensure privacy. The company states that due to the way the app is developed, there is no way to create a universal key to decrypt user messages. Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, remains adamant in maintaining the privacy of the messaging platform.
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