Telegram blocked on April 1? The State Duma commented on the possibility

Telegram messenger is unlikely to be blocked on April 1. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Andrei Svintsov shared this forecast with the Parliamentary Newspaper on February 17. Earlier, a number of Telegram channels announced the possible blocking of the messenger, citing unnamed sources. According to their information, the blocking may occur on April 1, similar to the already banned services Instagram* and Facebook* (owned by Meta, a company recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

In my opinion, the date of April 1 in the distributed messages is not accidental and was chosen with some humorous overtones, — noted the deputy. — It seems more likely that it would not be the messenger as a whole that would be blocked, but Telegram channels as potential tools for influencing public opinion. That is, a ban on writing in them, editing them, supplementing them in any way, and so on.

At the same time, Svintsov emphasized, Telegram itself, although not very willingly, still cooperates with the Russian authorities: as an example, the parliamentarian cited the blocking of more than 230 thousand channels containing prohibited information.

At the moment, three points are the most important for us: the creation of a Russian legal entity, the storage of personal data of our citizens on the territory of the Russian Federation and the payment of taxes.“, concluded the publication’s interlocutor. — Here, so far, the movement forward on the part of the messenger’s management is not so active, and according to personal data and the legal entity, there is none at all. Therefore, progressive restrictions are applied. And, I repeat, I see blocking channels as the next logical step, while Telegram itself, as a messenger, can remain operational after April 1.

source: «Parliamentary newspaper»

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