Telegram lawyers challenge court’s move on messenger’s blocking

MOSCOW, May 14 (PRIME) -- Telegram’s lawyers have contested a motion of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow to block the popular messenger in the country, Pavel Chikov, head of human rights group Agora, which acts on Telegram’s behalf in courts, said on Monday on his Telegram channel.

“The complaint was filed on May 11, 2018,” he said, adding that the lawyers ask to cancel the court’s decision, study the case under the procedure rules and terminate the proceedings. According to the lawyers, the Tagansky court had committed gross violations while considering the case.

The court quickly upheld the communications service in its pursuit against Telegram for the messenger’s reluctance to hand over decoding keys to the Federal Security Service, the action that the messenger finds technically and morally impossible.

Chikov said the measures taken by the communications service in order to mute the messenger had resulted in blocking of up to 20 million IP addresses with millions of them still closed.

“Most of the blocked addresses belong to international Internet companies, including Google, Amazon, Digital Ocean and Microsoft. This massive blocking of IP addresses has exerted a negative influence on a wide range of Internet services, which have nothing to do with Telegram,” the lawyer said.

Tens of companies have suffered and are still suffering losses, he said.

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