Roskomnadzor began blocking Telegram

Roskomnadzor sent a notification to providers about the blocking of Telegram, according to the department’s website. As noted, Roskomnadzor received a court decision to restrict access to the messenger.

• The head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, also specified to Interfax that today the agency will require the App Store and Google Play to remove Telegram. According to him, the blocking of tools for bypassing Telegram blocking (meaning VPN and proxy) will take place “at the request of the competent authorities.”
• According to users , the messenger has already been blocked by Yota, Megafon and MTS.
• The Bell found out possible losses among the audience of the service, as well as how much money Telegram channels will lose. More about this - here .

Injunction

• On Friday, Moscow's Tagansky Court took just over an hour to satisfy Roskomnadzor's claim to block Telegram and allow the agency to begin restricting access to the messenger immediately, without waiting for an appeal.
• The authorities require the messenger to hand over the keys to decrypt user communications. Pavel Durov repeatedly said that he would not hand over the keys to the authorities to decipher the correspondence. Specialists in digital cryptography noted that this is technically impossible.
• Telegram may file an appeal against the court decision within a month, the messenger's lawyers have already stated that they will seek to cancel the blocking. But the blocking will be in effect all this time and can only be canceled after the relevant court decision.

Block bypass

Pavel Durov on his page "VKontakte" gave such explanations. The points:

• The messenger will fight blocking with built-in methods, but it will not be able to provide 100% availability without a VPN.
• During the first hours of blocking, VPN/proxy servers can be very slow due to the influx of users.

• Regardless of the blocking, Telegram will be able to send messages to all Russian users. If there are communication problems, you do not need to reinstall the application, but download updates.

• Here is one , and here is another instruction on how to set up a VPN on your devices.

• The Telegram Marketing channel made a simple instruction for Telegram users with low online literacy - it can be sent, for example, to relatives.
• can also be blocked Formally, VPN services in Russia - this is allowed by a recently adopted law. In fact, it does not work yet, but if it starts, it will be possible to use an alternative way to access Telegram: proxy servers.
• If you only need access to Telegram, a proxy is a safer way, cybersecurity experts from Group-IB advise : unlike a VPN, only messenger traffic will pass through it, and not your entire smartphone.
• If you use Telegram as a corporate messenger (and just if you have such an opportunity), ask your IT service to set up a separate proxy server for your company - this is more reliable, and the messenger will work faster.

What do I get from this?

This is the first ban in Russian history on a mass Internet service not related to pirated content. It will show in practice whether the authorities really have the ability to block applications of this magnitude without circumventing restrictions by anyone. Stock up on VPNs and proxies.

Artem Gubenko