Roskomnadzor filed a lawsuit about blocking Telegram

Roskomnadzor filed a lawsuit in the Tagansky district court to block Telegram for refusing to provide the FSB with encryption keys to decode user messages, the censorship website said .

The lawsuit was filed in connection with the identification of the special service of the Telegram by the Duties of the "Organizer of the Distribution of Information".

According to the Code of Administrative proceedings, the CPN lawsuit may be considered in court up to three months. Then, in the case of a decision on blocking the messenger, its owners will have a month to file an appeal to the Moscow City Court. Its consideration can be delayed for up to two months, and only in case of refusal to appeal, the decision to block will enter into legal force.

The right to file a lawsuit on the ban on Telegram from Roskomnadzor appeared on Wednesday. The service administration refused to fulfill the ultimatum of the department on the provision of encryption keys within 15 days.

According to Interfax, the press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov expressed regret due to possible blocking. "Telegram is very convenient, we really use it, including for communication with reporters. It will be very sorry if the consensus is not reached. As far as we understand, it has not yet been found," the official said. At the same time, he emphasized that "the law is the law", and promised in the case of blocking the service "to look for an alternative that will best meet our needs."

The Internet Open Dmitry Marinichev called the possible blocking of the messenger meaningless. "It will be a war of shields and swords, to some extent meaningless and illogical," he said.

According to the head of the Agora Group Pavel Chikov, the position of lawyers of the group representing Telegram in the courts remains unchanged: "FSB requirements to provide access to private correspondence of users are unconstitutional, are not based on the law, technically and legally irreparable - therefore, the requirement of blocking is also unreasonable."

The presidential adviser to the Internet, German Klimenko, advised Telegram users to switch to ICQ messenger, owned by Mail.ru Group, oligarch Alexander Mamut. "I like ICQ. This is a full -fledged local, which is completely in no way inferior to Telegram from the point of view of an ordinary user," the official said.

On April 2, the owners of Telegram notified Roskomnadzor that it is technically impossible to fulfill the requirements of the FSB - the keys of encryption of messages in "secret chats" are stored only on user devices.

In October 2017, the World Court of the Meshchansky District of Moscow fined Telegram Messenger LLP (London), which owns a messenger, 800 thousand rubles for refusing to share encryption keys with the FSB. In December, the Meshchansky District Court approved a decision on a fine . On March 20, 2018, the Supreme Court rejected the TELEGRAM lawsuit against the FSB with a demand to recognize the order of the special services for the provision of encryption keys.