Telegram blocking: the history of the conflict with Roskomnadzor and the reaction of Durov

Messengers have long ceased to be just a means of communication and tightly entered our lives. They are used for work and entertainment, as a means of communication, a source of information and perform a dozen other functions. Especially popular on the territory of the CIS, and throughout the world, the instant messenger from the creator of "Vkontakte" Pavel Durov, called Telegram, has acquired, which has recently been widely heard. A few days ago, the platform was blocked by Roskomnadzor and we simply could not ignore this burning topic.  

A small prehistory

The popular messenger began its work in 2013 year and the main purpose of its creation was to provide users with a fully protected application that would give them freedom of action and ensure the secrecy of correspondence. The idea was a success and was brilliantly realized - the main advantage of the new messenger was a high level of encryption, which ensures the confidentiality of personal data. Along with this, Telegram is a non-commercial product, it does not have advertising, but there is an application for Durov's personal funds.

Recently, the focus of the discussion was that Durov plans to move Telegram to Block and create on its basis a whole financial system with its own means of payment. To implement the project, it was neglectedly ICO, during which the fabulous money was collected at a closed round, well, then the most interesting began.

The essence of the conflict with Roskomnadzor

If Telegram users are, first of all, a convenient means of communication and information transfer, then for officials it is a dangerous tool in the hands of terrorists, drug dealers and arms dealers. Let's not deny that the encrypted messenger is of some interest to those who have something to hide, but this is not the abode of evil, as legislators think. With the same success, the supporters of IGIL can use other messengers and means of communication. Blocking Telegram, WhatsApp, Skype or anything else is unlikely to help stop their activities. Nevertheless, a real battle began between Durov and Roskomnadzor.

For the first time, Roskomnadzor turned its attention to Telegram in the spring of 2017 - since then there have been rumors that everyone's favorite "cart" could be blocked. Then it was perceived as a joke and, of course, everyone was sure that the almighty Durov would be able to solve any issue in his favor. Known for his anarchist sentiments and eccentric antics, Durov has repeatedly stated that he would not allow the privacy of Telegram users to be violated, and it was immediately clear that he would not go along with the Russian authorities.

From the words Roskomnadzor went to the action and already in June 2017, the representatives of the agency in an official form turned to Pavel Durov with a request to provide information about the messenger in order to add it to the register. The owner of Telegram refused to cooperate with the authorities, calling such demands sabotage of national interests, followed by the first warning about the blockage.

Later it became known that Telegram used to organize a terrorist act in the metro of St. Petersburg, there were several more facts of using the messenger by terrorists. And here already Roskomnadzor moved closer to the case, demanding to provide the keys to the decryption of messages. With the help of them, the FSB would have to identify terrorists and prevent their actions, but in this case, the messages of any user would lose their confidentiality, no matter how close to terrorist activities.

The reaction of Paul Durov

As expected, Durov took the demand of Roskomnadzor as a complete absurdity. In his opinion, following the instructions of the department would be a violation of the Constitution, and due to the technical features of the Telegram, it is simply impossible to provide the keys to accessing the decryption of messages. To do this, it would be necessary to completely rewrite its architecture, which, of course, Durov did not intend to do.

The funny thing is that the deputies who passed the law on transferring keys of decryption by instant messengers, themselves find it difficult to answer what the keys themselves provide. The BBC Russia news service asked a few elected representatives of the people such a question and the answers to it showed complete ignorance by the officials of the elementary features of the law they are adopting. All this became only an excuse for jokes and memes, which in recent days just flooded the Internet. One of the most popular ones is given below: users uploaded a fake letter to the network, allegedly on behalf of Durov himself, who literally transmits "keys" from Telegram to the head of the FSB. The letter, although not written by Durov himself, but again demonstrates the absurdity of the requirements of Roskomnadzor and the special services.

The same people who understand the technical features of Telegram, confirm the words of Durov himself. On that messenger and it is invulnerable that encryption takes place on a very complex algorithm. It turns out that the decryption key is only available on the recipient's device, and each message has its own, that is, the key is one-time. Therefore, if Durov, purely hypothetically, wished to fulfill somehow the requirements of Roskomnadzor, then he needed to give access to the admin board and its encryption system, that is, in fact, just to gift Telegram to special services. Therefore, the position of the creator of Telegram remains indestructible: confidentiality is not sold and human rights should not be compromised because of greed or fear.

What will happen to Telegram now?

Court proceedings began, and the lawsuit filed by the telegram messenger Telegram to the FSB was dismissed. The court ordered to provide decryption keys within 15 days, but Pavel Durov reacted to this demand with the previous attitude, writing on Twitter that the threats of blocking would lead to nothing. Absurdity of requirements was understood not only by the Telegram team, but also by ordinary users, the truth is obvious - the blocking of the messenger will not exterminate terrorism, it is only a significant step back in the development of the country's technologies and its freedom of speech.

According to Durov, in order to somehow harm the intentions of terrorists, one should simply block the entire Internet, and even in this case they will find another way of communication. It would seem that the country should be proud of the fact that Durov, one by one, creates such successful projects that raise the prestige of the country in the eyes of the world - after all, we also have intelligent programmers who are able to wipe out the nose to Western competitors and they know how to make worthwhile products that are recognized the whole world. But the state structures saw only a threat in Telegram, completely negating the benefits and opportunities that this messenger gives us. According to the adviser to the president of the Russian Federation Herman Klimenko, in our country the most popular messenger is ICQ, therefore the blocking of Telegram will not harm anyone.

13 April, the court passed a verdict on blocking Telegram on the territory of the Russian Federation. The court session was held in an emergency: during 19 minutes there was a hearing, which was not attended by representatives of Telegram, but there were representatives of the media, who on the eve released a negative story about the messenger, as a hotbed of terrorists and drug dealers. The court decided to implement the blockade immediately, without giving Durov and his team the chance to somehow prevent and appeal this decision.

How to bypass the Telegram lock?

Completely destroy all your favorite instant messenger from Roskomnadzor will not work. The company Telegram Messenger LLP is not Russian and even Telegram servers in this country do not exist - they are located in several states at once. Blocking the application and preventing its use among the Russians among the officials will not work either because the Telegram technology uses built-in methods to bypass locks. And although Durov does not guarantee that they will work for all 100%, however, VPN-services nobody canceled and with the decision of Roskomnadzor they cope perfectly well.

Durov himself recommends not deleting or reinstalling the application in case he has problems with his work. At the same time, regularly it will be necessary to carry out updates through marketplaces - the Telegram team will do everything to ensure that all users, irrespective of the territory of residence and the influence of outside forces, can access the messenger and work with it correctly.

Summing up this article, I would like to say that on the one hand, the messenger was blocked and it seems that Durov should be the loser in this battle with Roskomnadzor, but in fact he is not. The blocking will in no way affect the number of platform users, and its popularity will only increase because of this scandal, as will the authority of Durov himself among the people - a person of principle who does not yield to the pressure of force and power. In fact, blocking does not solve anything either for the losing party, or for users, it will not suffer in any way or the terrorists, because of which this mess has started. I would like to finish this article in unison with Durov's post in response to the blocking - despite the actions of the authorities, in this situation, both Telegram and Durov are still on top.