Connect the court

Journalists Oleg Kashin and Alexander Plyushchev file a lawsuit against the Federal Security Service due to the requirement to provide encryption keys from the correspondence of users of the Telegram messenger. This was reported by Kashin himself.

“Poyshchev and I are filing lawsuits against the FSB, objecting to the requirement to provide the correspondence encryption keys. We believe that this affects our right to confidential communication with information sources,” the journalist said. “Being the leading popular Telegram channels, I am protecting this new original media and I have become an important phenomenon in Russia.”

"The Federal Security Service, taking advantage of its special position in the state, is trying to violate our rights, thereby harming the development of the whole society, and if completely utilitarian - then technologies, the economy," Kashin notes.

Lawyers of the Human Rights Group "Agora" will represent journalists in court. The group has already taken up the protection of the interests of the messenger administration in the case of a fine imposed on Telegram.

On October 16, the peace judge of the judicial section of 383 of the Meshchansky district of Moscow, Julia Danilchik, fined the Telegram Messenger LLP (London) for 800 thousand rubles . The reason was the company's refusal to execute the FSB request to provide information to decode user messages. Judge Danilchik found Telegram guilty of committing an offense provided for in paragraph 2.1 of Article 13.31 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (failure to fulfill the information distribution by the organizer of information to provide information necessary for decoding electronic messages).

According to the materials of the administrative case announced in court, on July 12 of this year, the FSB sent a request to the London Telegram office on the need to provide information on six phone numbers until July 16. There was no answer from Telegram. On August 31, the FSB notified the messenger’s management of the intention to draw up a protocol on an administrative offense for failure to comply with the Federal Law on Storage, execution and transfer of information, which was done on September 14.

The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov said that the requirements of the special services to provide access to user correspondence are not only unrealized, but also contradict the 23 of the Constitution - "everyone has the right to the secret of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraphic and other messages." “The FSB’s desire to gain access to personal correspondence is an attempt to expand its influence through the constitutional law of citizens. Today's decision of the philistine court may be appealed until the FSB’s lawsuit is considered by the judge familiar with the basic law of Russia - its constitution,” Durov wrote.

Meanwhile, Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that despite the court’s decision on the blocking of Telegram, there is no resource resource. “Actually, no one was talking about this,” said Peskov. “There is a court decision that I cannot comment, but in this case there are no talk about blocking now.”

On September 27, Durov published documents received from the FSB . The next day, he stated that the company would continue to follow its policy, protecting the anonymity of users and the freedom of information exchange. “Telegram will be on protecting freedom and anonymity. Any restrictions accepted by countries will not change anything,” Durov wrote. “We will continue to provide our users with the opportunity to anonymously exchange messages and work on the territory of those countries that respect freedom.”

On September 28, the Minister of Communications and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov said that the Telegram messenger can be blocked in Russia if the company does not fulfill the legislation. "Ultimately, the Telegram blocking is, of course, possible. Those companies that will not cooperate, they, from the point of view of the implementation of the law, will fall under the blocking," Nikiforov said.