Telegram Banned in Russia Due to Court Order Defiance

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.

Telegram is popular in the cryptocurrency world for hosting discussion channels related crypto. Furthermore, the company is planning on releasing its own digital coin, TON, sometime this year. How much impact, if any, will the Russian ban affect Telegrams ICO is currently unknown. In fact, their refusal to comply can only help further their legitimacy. Given that the coin will be tradeable in the messaging platform, ensuring the integrity of their encryption will conversely keep the users’ wallet keys secure.