Head of the RKN Zharov: A few days left before the Telegram blocking

Prior to the blocking of the Telegram messenger, if his administration does not agree to fulfill the requirements of Roskomnadzor, a few days remain. As TASS reports , the head of the censorship department, Alexander Zharov, stated this.

“I can’t say that we are ready and will block Telegram tomorrow, but I repeat that the time is limited - it is calculated days,” the agency reports the word of the official. “We will wait for Pavel Durov (owner of Telegram. - Ed.).”

According to the "Law of Yarovoy" company, the owners of messengers are required to register in Russia as "organizers of the dissemination of information" and, at the request of the FSB, provide it with messages of message encryption.

Telegram, launched by Durov at the end of 2013 after emigration from Russia, has not yet been registered in this capacity. For the first time, the threat of blocking the messenger was reported on May 16 . Telegram developers in this regard said: "Not a single government or special service in the world has yet received a bit of information from us. It will always be so." Meanwhile, in the RKN, reports of the claims of the department to the service were then called "rumors."

However, on Friday, Zharov made an open letter to Durov , urging the owner of Telegram to register in accordance with the Yarova Law and threatening the resource by blocking otherwise. The head of the RKN noted that his department repeatedly sent the service administration "to all available addresses" letters with explanations of the Russian law, but now "all available opportunities for official communication" with developers have exhausted.

Durov himself called the desire of officials to block the “Telegram“ paradoxical ”“ neutral in relation to Russia ”, noting that the“ controlled US ”WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger continue to work. "As soon as Telegram is blocked, the correspondence of Russian officials, their communication with friends and relatives and other sensitive data via WhatsApp/Viber will go to the Apple ICloud/Google Drive clouds controlled by America," Durov wrote. "What is the meaning of the national security point of view? interests ".

Later on the same day, June 23, Zharov said that Durov ignores user safety and provides opportunities for communicating with terrorists and other criminals. The owner of Telegram objected to this that only from the beginning of June the service has blocked more than 5 thousand public channels and groups in which terrorism was promoted. "Telegram processes requests for the removal of terrorist materials from around the world, and in any country Telegram was not blocked for non -existent" neutrality "in this matter," Durov emphasized.

In Russia, since spring, mass blocking of instant messengers for refusing to register as “organizers of information distribution” and cooperate with security forces. So, on April 10, access was closed to the popular Zello Internet , and on May 2 , BlackBerry, IMO and Line messengers got into the register of prohibited sites.