Russian authorities have begun restricting access to Telegram, one of the country’s most popular social media apps, as the country continues to steer everyday Russians to its own tightly controlled alternatives to foreign technology platforms.
On Tuesday, the government announced it was restricting access to Telegram to “protect Russian citizens” and accused the app of refusing to block content that authorities deem “criminal and terrorist.”
Russia’s telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor said in a statement that it will continue to restrict the operation of the Telegram messenger “until there are no violations of Russian law.”
“Personal data is not protected and there are no effective measures to combat fraud and the use of messaging services for criminal or terrorist purposes,” Roskomnadzor said. Telegram rejected the claims and said it actively combats harmful uses of its platform.
Telegram could be fined 64 million rubles ($828,000) for allegedly failing to self-regulate by refusing to remove banned content from its messenger platform, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Once the measures against Telegram took effect on Tuesday, users across Russia reported widespread disruption, with thousands complaining that the messaging app was not working or was running slower than usual, according to digital services tracking site DownDetector. More than 11,000 complaints were reported in the past 24 hours, according to digital services tracking site DownDetector.
Telegram is a notable target of Russian censorship. The app is used by millions of people in Russia, including the military, the highest levels of civil service, state media, and government agencies, including the Kremlin and Roskomnadzor itself.
The app’s Russian-born founder, Pavel Durov, said in a statement on Tuesday that Russia’s attempts to restrict Telegram will fail, writing: “Telegram stands for free speech and privacy under any pressure.”
“Russia is trying to restrict access to Telegram and force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app designed for surveillance and political censorship,” Durov wrote. “Eight years ago, Iran tried the same strategy and failed. It banned Telegram under fabricated pretexts and tried to force its people into state-run alternatives.”
In the case of Russia, the state-run alternative is Max. The Russian government now requires the app to be pre-installed on all new smartphones and tablets sold in the country. Max users can message each other, send money, and make voice and video calls.
In a strange twist, the Max app was developed by Vkontakte (VK), which Durov co-founded before selling his stake and leaving Russia in 2014 after the Kremlin announced it had asked the site to hand over data on Ukrainian users. VK is currently state-owned.
This is not the first time Russia has targeted Telegram. Adam Segal, director of the Digital Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNN that Russia’s attempts to block its citizens from external apps go back nearly a decade. The Russian government has tried to block Telegram before, including in 2018.
Most recently, in August, Roskomnadzor announced that it would partially restrict calls on the Telegram and WhatsApp messaging services, saying the services were used for fraud, extortion, sabotage, and terrorist activities.
The following month, Russia began preinstalling the Max app on smartphones.
Segal noted that the move to restrict Telegram was not without criticism within Russia, including from some of the most prominent supporters of the country’s military objectives in Ukraine: military bloggers reporting from the front lines of the war.
One Russian military blogger said Roskomnadzor was supporting the “enemy” by restricting the use of telegrams and forcing the Russian military to rely on “carrier pigeons.”
Segal speculates that the Kremlin may have decided that a pushback was “worthwhile” given Russia’s domestic security needs.
In recent years, Russia has researched and purchased technology from China’s infamous Great Firewall, a sophisticated system that controls and monitors its citizens’ internet usage, Segal said. But when it comes to Chinese-level surveillance, “I don’t think the Russians are there yet.”
“I think it’s going to be like two steps forward and one step back, or one step forward and two steps back,” Segal said of efforts to block apps like Telegram. Russia will “still have to deal with some of its own technological limitations as well as domestic pressures to continue using global apps.”
“You can definitely see the tech-savvy Russian elite continuing to use it through VPNs and other workarounds,” Segal said.
