Watchdog adds Telegram to register of info distribution organizers

MOSCOW, Jun 29 (PRIME) -- Messenger Telegram has been added to the Russian register of organizers of information distribution, Vadim Ampelonsky, press secretary of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media, said late on Wednesday.

The watchdog’s Director Alexander Zharov said earlier that Telegram had provided all the information required by the law for the register, which means the messenger has started to work in the country’s legal field.

Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov said he had no objections to adding the messenger to the register if authorities need only open data with no access to personal correspondence.

In cooperation with the Russian communications service, Telegram can promise only the same level of partnership it has in all other countries, meaning joint work on withdrawal of public materials involving propaganda of terrorism, drugs, calls to violence, and children’s pornography, along with anti-spam work, as Durov said.

Zharov called on Telegram publicly on June 23 to follow the law by filling in a form and submitting it to the service to be added to the list of organizers of information distribution or be blocked.

Amid the dispute between the communications service and the messenger, the Federal Security Service said that terrorists in Russia actively use Telegram to get in touch with each other and their curators from abroad. In his turn, Durov said that possible blocking of Telegram would not help in war on terror.

Presidential aide for the Internet German Klimenko said on Wednesday that Telegram will have to cooperate with state authorities all the same.

“Fighting between anonymity and privacy has remained. My job on the advisor position started, as I remember, from a scandal, when I was asked how I saw Telegram’s future, and I said that sooner or later but Durov would cooperate with authorities or would die as a resource, because it’s unavoidable, now or later, but not a single state will tolerate anonymous, not private, but anonymous sources. It’s inevitable; it’ll be the case,” Klimenko said.

Adding to the register does not oblige a resource to provide state authorities with any user data, the official said, adding that he sees no point in making the whole story into such a big deal.

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