In early may, Roskomnadzor has made popular Chinese instant messenger WeChat to the restricted list. A few days earlier, the office has blocked the messenger Line, Imo, BlackBerry Messenger, as well as Vchat for refusing to cooperate with the Russian authorities. Then in the prohibited list also made their IP addresses and domains. Experts are sure that the state gets to the really big players: WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram. The end confrontation with the authorities for messengers ?
Roskomnadzor blocks one after another, foreign messengers. 2 may have restricted access to BlackBerry Messenger, Imo and Line, as well as audiovisual chat Vchat. After three days in the register of banned sites has made almost a billion Chinese origin messenger WeChat. A few days later it became known that WeChat has entered into a dialogue with the office, provided data and were included in the register of the organizers of disseminating information. According to Forbes, so the regulator shows a commitment and gets to the really “big fish”: WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram. What are the true motives of the state and whether to end the confrontation with the authorities Linkedin for second messengers?
Maybe, most likely, will end. Prophecy is a thankless task, but given the intransigence of the Telegram founder Pavel Durov in cooperation with the authorities, and information disclosure, the lock Telegram in Russia is a matter of time. WhatsApp and Viber, unlike the latter, probably, will go on cooperation with Roskomnadzor. Durov himself said that for these reasons, in Saudi Arabia, the Telegram traffic jammed, and in China, Oman and Iran, the service is generally blocked. In that time, WhatsApp has no such problems in China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other countries. This is because WhatsApp and Facebook “trade trust users in order to increase market share”.
Pavel Durov complain not only of the Russian law enforcement authorities. The head of Europol Rob Wainwright said that the owner refuses to cooperate in curbing terrorist activity, the “delivery” of accounts used by neophytes and promoters of the “Islamic state” (an organization banned in Russia). And The British The Times and all calls messenger the most popular means of communication among terrorists of this group.
Current and future blocking of instant messengers in Russia are the reaction of Roskomnadzor at the request of “security forces.” So arranged the mechanism in Russia. Messengers must register as organizers of information dissemination (ARI), that is, to transfer user data to the secret services. To those who it ignores, the Agency Alexander Zharov applies repressive measures.
At what point Roskomnadzor will add Telegram to the list of banned – hard to say. But blocking can be expected at any time. Durov himself, apparently, is ready to such succession of events.
“Let them block the way they want. We will not change our principles and betray our users. I know that is not very good, when Telegram (or individual services) are prohibited in your country. But sometimes it’s better to completely stop using the service than to continue to use it despite the undermined confidence in security”, – said Durov.
