Durov is driven into a corner

The agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations tried to persuade the employees of the Telegram messenger to cooperate. This was told by the creator of the service Pavel Durov in an interview with the American publication The Baffler.

According to Durov, after he sold his share in VKontakte in 2014 and left Russia, the FBI employees regularly interviewed him when crossing the US border. First, the questions concerned the site of VKontakte and its relations with the Russian authorities. Durov was asked if he had to comply with their requirements, to provide Russian special services for user information. The founder of the social network then told the agents only what the media already wrote about.

Then the FBI staff became interested in Durov’s work on Telegram. He was asked questions about the principles of service and encryption algorithms. Letters from the FBI with a proposal for help in the event that she suddenly needed Telegram began to arrive at the mail of Durov. He did not react to these messages.

In May 2016, two FBI agents rented in a Durov apartment and began to ask questions about Telegram in San Francisco. “They showed me the court order and said:“ We very respect your position on confidentiality and cryptography and we respect what you are trying to do. But there is terrorism in the world, this is a serious problem, and we must protect society. We hope that you understand and share our views, ”said Durov. The agents invited him to create an informal channel through which it would be possible to exchange information about specific users of the messenger in the event of a terrorist threat. Durov replied that he would make a decision by the lawyers study.

According to Durov, he was shown a fake court decision, since his company does not have an official representation in the United States, and Telegram servers are only partially in this country.

"In Russia, the guys from the FSB with whom I spoke did not impress me. They were of medium abilities and not very qualified. FBI agents are not like that. Those who interrogated me were competent. They spoke several languages. They came prepared and accurately knew what questions they were highly caliber. And I realized that there were so many safety resources that it was simply terribly" - noted. Durov.

In addition, according to Durov, one of the Telegram employees offered "about a dozen thousand dollars" for creating a confidential channel secret from the command of the messenger. However, the employee refused the proposal and announced the conversation Durov.

In June, Durov already stated that the American authorities tried to bribe the developers of the messenger , although he did not reveal the details then. “During the weekly visit of our team to the United States last year there were two attempts to bribe by American departments, plus pressure on me by the FBI,” he wrote on Twitter. “It would be naive to think that an independent/safe cryptographic application can be launched in the United States.”

In Russia, since spring, mass blocking of messengers has continued for refusing to register as distributors of information and cooperate with the authorities, which provides for the "Yarovaya Law". At the end of June, Telegram was also under threat of blocking. The head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, demanded that Durov register the service in the register of information distribution organizers. As a result, the department brought the messenger to the register , but Durov promised not to fulfill the "Yarovaya Law" .

On July 30, President Vladimir Putin signed the law on regulation of messengers . According to the document entering into force on November 1, users of these services must be identified without fail. Through messengers, it is forbidden to transmit "information distributed in violation of the law." The Service Administration is obliged, at the request of the state, to block the sending of such messages. In addition, authorities receive the right to block the transfer of messages "in cases and the manner determined by the government." Thus, it will be possible to prohibit the distribution of absolutely any information through messengers.