Moscow chokes Telegram, pushes state-backed app

Russia's internet watchdog on Tuesday announced it was throttling the Telegram messenger platform for alleged legal violations, as Moscow tries to push its citizens into using a more tightly controlled domestic online service.

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A smartphone shows the logo of the Max messenger app (bottom) in front of Telegram's logo on a laptop screen.

(AFP)

Moscow has been threatening various internet platforms with forced slowdowns or outright bans if they do not comply with Russian laws.

Those laws require data on Russian users to be stored inside the country, and for efforts to be made to stamp out their use for what Moscow calls “criminal and terrorist purposes”.

Critics and rights campaigners say the restrictions are a transparent attempt by the Kremlin to ramp up control and surveillance over internet use in Russia, amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent during the Ukraine offensive.

Telegram’s Russian-born founder Pavel Durov, who lives outside the country, posted on his Telegram channel that “Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship”.

The Roskomnadzor agency said in a statement cited by state media that it will “continue to introduce phased restrictions” on Telegram, which it said had not complied with the laws.