Telegram: Messenger service denies intelligence reading messages

[Togijak]

 

The Russian domestic secret service FSB demanded from Telegram insight into the news of some participants. Telegram did not comply with this demand. For this reason, a Russian court has sentenced the messenger service to a fine of 800,000 rubles (about 12,000 euros), the Russian news agency TASS. Telegram CEO Pavel Valer Valerovich Durov wants to appeal against the verdict.

 

Alone ten million people use Telegram in Russia, 100 million people worldwide. So the free app is particularly popular in Russia, because messages arrive encrypted from the sender to the recipient. Currently, Telegram has denied the Russian domestic secret service FSB the decrypting of the messages sent by users. According to the agency report, on July 12 the FSB contacted the CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durow, with the request to provide information needed for the decoding of messages exchanged between the users of six telephone numbers. After Telegram had allowed the expired deadline to expire, the intelligence service proceeded to take legal action. Telegram wants to defend itself against the demand of the FSB

 

Dorow, who is also written in Durov in some media, said: "The demands of the FSB can not be met technically and violate Article 23 of the Russian Constitution. Accordingly, every person has the right to a secret of the correspondence, of telephone conversations, postal, telegraphic and other communications. "However, it also states that a restriction of this right is possible by a court decision.

 

Telegram has ten days to go against the fine. Failure of the ruling, the popular app in Russia could be blocked. The basis for this would be a law which entered into force on 1 November 2017, which would allow the Russian government to block unwanted Internet pages. The Kremlin justifies its actions as a measure to protect against Islamist attacks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said, however, to his knowledge, the blocking of the app is currently not an issue.

 

Google translation of German source (October 17, 2017)