Telegram, the international instant messenger which claims to guarantee its users a superior level of confidentiality, has reiterated its refusal to disclose “any information” to any “government or special service in the world,” the Russian media have reported, citing company statements.
Earlier this week, Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom regulator, requested Telegram to provide contact and other corporate information so that the messenger be registered in the official Russian “Registry of information-dissemination organizers.”
Since 2014, the Russian authorities have been listing online services that “organize the dissemination of information.” Today, this list includes such websites as Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki (Russia’s two most popular social networks), the webmail service Mail.ru and dozens of other services.
Threema, “the world’s favorite secure messenger,” was added to the list earlier this year.
However, several other messengers have been blocked by the Russian authorities for failing to comply with this legal requirement.
From formal company registration to personal data storage obligations
Independent-minded companies are not willing to be bound by the obligations arising from Russia’s “anti-terrorist” legislation, which was dopted last year and should come into force in 2018 or 2019.
According to this controversial legislation, “information-dissemination organizers” will be required to store for a period of six months any type of content from their users’ communications. Metadata on these communications will have to be kept during three years by telecom companies and one year by “information-dissemination organizers.”
Telegram has already been put under pressure by the Russian authorities in the past. Thus in December 2015 German Klimenko, the Internet advisor of Russian president Vladimir Putin, threatened to block Telegram for “de facto helping” terrorists.
The messenger will not allow security agencies to access such content, Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov then replied.
“The threat of blocking [Telegram] in just one or two markets will not affect our privacy policy,” he added.
As of January 2017, Telegram had 6 million active Russian users, up from just 2 million in early 2016, according to Combot data cited by business daily Vedomosti. Telegram is even more popular in Iran with some 35-40 million users.
