Min: Russia has more questions to Facebook, WhatsApp than Telegram

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Mar 23 (PRIME) -- Russia has more questions to messengers Facebook and WhatsApp regarding their fulfilment of law than to Telegram, obliged to provide the security service with keys to decode users’ messages, Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov told reporters on Friday.

“I think …when we speak about the … war on terror and try to accuse these or those messengers of being exploited in illegal actions, it seems to me the most important thing is to have a single approach,” Nikiforov said.

“We should create less news pegs only about Telegram. There are more questions to services, for example, of Facebook and WhatsApp, other messengers. We somehow take exactly the story of Telegram out of context.”

The questions to the messengers are about their following Russian law, a status of an organizer of information distribution, cooperation with law enforcement authorities during investigations.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit of Telegram against the Federal Security Service, which insists on receiving keys to decode users’ messages. The communications service warned Telegram of a necessity to obey within 15 days, or it will go to court to block access to the messenger on the country’s territory.

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