As Russian court announces Telegram ban, users stand defiant, amused… and worried · Global Voices
Russia bans Telegram; collage by <PERSON>
As a Moscow court ordered the ban of messenger app Telegram on April 13, 2018, Deputy Communications Minister <PERSON> assured the public that those who want to keep using it “will look for ways to bypass the blocking.” In a rare moment of consensus with the Russian authorities, many Telegram users agreed.
Though conceived as a messenger app similar to WhatsApp, Telegram earned its popularity in Russia thanks to its “channels,” a blogging platform somewhere between Twitter and Facebook which quickly attracted political commentators, journalists and officials. Telegram channels are a booming business, too: they are widely used in political and corporate wars. Last year Vedomosti, a Russian business newspaper, claimed that political ads (or damaging leaks) on Telegram's most popular channels could cost as much as 450,000 rubles ($7,500.)
But Telegram's CEO <PERSON> has repeatedly and vocally refused to comply with the demand of Russian security services to give up the messenger's encryption keys.
And as the year-long battle between Telegram and the Russian authorities came to a head with the decision to block the app, reactions to the announcement have been passionate.
“Russia has finally become the world's second largest economy after China! At least in the field of permanently blocking Telegram,” wrote <PERSON>, formerly a press officer for a <PERSON> youth movement.
Other channels took a defiant stance, encouraging their followers to find ways around the blocking.
“They are blocking us, and we get stronger!” wrote the author of the Deer of Nizhny Novgorod, a channel focused on politics in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Like several other channels, the Deer of Nizhny Novgorod provided links to tutorials on how to circumvent the blocking of Telegram using a VPN or Virtual Private Network. “If you’re not a grandmother, you’ll be able to do it very easily and quickly,” he added.
But not all agree that cheating your way out of a government ban is a walk in the park:
когда ты гуманитарий и пытаешься понять, как настроить прокси в телеграме pic.twitter.com/M32Ut9EoOI
— Никотинка с Бровями (@Yoghikitt) 13 апреля 2018 г.
When you majored in liberal arts and are now trying to figure out how Telegram proxies work
Channels dedicated to Russian politics and the inner workings of the Kremlin – among the most popular on the platform – also largely claimed they were not worried by the ban.
“About 85% of our users have installed one [a VPN] in the last 24 hours. 880
If you haven’t, here are the instructions,” channel Karaulny (The Sentinel) told its 66,000+ followers.
The owner of Nezygar (“Not <PERSON>”, a play on the name of <PERSON>, a Russian political journalist and author of the best-selling book All the Kremlin's Men), one of the most influential political channels with 133,000 followers, told Russian outlet RBC the ban “confirmed Telegram’s status as an independent platform.”
“Nezygar will stay on the platform and won’t move to another,” he added.
Others took a different road. <PERSON>, the deputy of the ruling party United Russia, published on Twitter a video showing himself dramatically deleting Telegram from his smartphone:
Выполняю решение суда. Соблюдаю законы РФ. pic.twitter.com/BKp0qW7045
— Сергей Боярский (@sergeyboyarskiy) 13 апреля 2018 г.
I am following the court decision. I abide by the laws of the Russian Federation.
Chechnya's strongman leader <PERSON>, who was banned from Instagram in December 2017, also said he would not try to make any attempts to bypass the blocking. 880