ECHR Accepts Telegram's Challenge to Russian Blockade
European Court of Human Rights registers Telegram complaint. Hope rises for lifting Russia's messenger ban soon.
The European Court of Human Rights has accepted and registered Telegram's complaint against an 800,000 ruble fine imposed for refusing to provide FSB encryption keys. According to lawyer Pavel Chikov, the fact that the ECHR has decided to consider this case at all gives us a real chance to overturn Telegram's blockade in Russia. Countless complaints are rejected at the registration stage in Strasbourg, so acceptance is an excellent sign.
Why was an 800,000 ruble sum specified in the lawsuit? The Moscow Meshchansky District Court fined Telegram Messenger LLP exactly 800,000 rubles on October 16, 2017. This is how Pavel seeks to recover those funds without demanding anything more.
Since mid-April 2018, access to Telegram across Russia has been blocked, during which time a massive number of IP addresses were banned—the vast majority belonging to Google and Amazon. This widespread IP blocking campaign also affected major sites like VKontakte, Yandex, Twitter, Facebook, and Odnoklassniki, as well as messaging apps WhatsApp, Viber, and iMessage.
The entertainment sector has also felt the impact of the "Yarovaya package" and IP blockades. Many foreign online games remain inaccessible to Russian players. These IP addresses are gradually being unblocked if they're unrelated to circumventing the messenger ban, allowing players to return to games. However, this process is slow, and a noticeable decline in Russian-speaking players across various games is evident.
Over 18 million addresses have been blocked to date, yet Roskomnadzor has failed to completely cut off access to Telegram in Russia. This became possible thanks to VPN workarounds.
A VPN is an encrypted channel that masks your IP address and makes the network think you're located in a country of your choice, not Russia. Admittedly, this method has a downside—connection speeds to Telegram noticeably decrease—but it doesn't affect message sending and receiving.
Today, various ways to connect to a VPN are available:
- ready-made apps for iOS and Android;
- standalone programs for computers;
- special browser extensions.
For instance, Opera already has a built-in VPN that can be enabled in settings. However, for a reliable and quality connection, a paid VPN is the answer. For a modest fee, you gain access to high-speed VPN service with no queues, disconnections, or slowdowns.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov continues to emphasize that Telegram physically cannot provide encryption keys because they use end-to-end encryption. This means that even he cannot view text messages or files exchanged between users.
Russia had just over 7 million Telegram users, and this kind of "publicity" only brings the app new members.