Telegram blocked in Russia

Russia has banned popular messaging app Telegram in the country due to the refusal of the firm’s officials to hand over their encryption keys. Until Telegram hands over their keys to the FSB, the court has ordered that the ban remains in place.

Telegram’s Pavel Duriv had this to say.

The power that local governments have over IT corporations is based on money. At any given moment, a government can crash their stocks by threatening to block revenue streams from its markets and thus force these companies to do strange things (remember how last year Apple moved iCloud servers to China).

At Telegram, we have the luxury of not caring about revenue streams or ad sales. Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed.”

Telegram also confirmed on other social media services that it would be bypassing the new social media blocks by making changes on its end. Users would not have to do anything, for users who experienced issues with connectivity, Durov recommends simply installing updates from the Play Store or App Store.

The feud between the Russian government and the house that Durov built is apparently going strong.

Via Neowin.