If Telegram doesn’t hand over its encryption keys to Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, it may have to say bye-bye to its many Russian users. The secretive Russian-founded company prides itself on user privacy.
The battle between the popular Russian messaging service Telegram and the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) is escalating. On Tuesday Roskomnadzor, the state regulatory agency for telecommunications, threatened to block Telegram within the next 15 days should the company stand by its refusal to provide the domestic intelligence agency FSB with its encryption keys.
The warning came less than one hour after the Russian Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by Telegram. The messaging service had lodged its complaint to challenge a 2016 FSB directive calling for the disclosure of the digital company’s encryption keys.
Privacy violation or upholding the constitution?
Telegram saw the directive as a violation of privacy of correspondence and therefore took its case to the Supreme Court. During the trial, an FSB representative claimed that constitutional guarantees regarding citizen’s rights were in no way affected. The “content of communications,” the FSB said, would not be exposed as a result of providing encryption keys. The official justification for obtaining the keys, according to the intelligence service, is to use them to help combat terrorism.
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