![]() On 13 April 2018, Moscow’s Tagansky District Court granted Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator, its request to block access to Telegram on the grounds that the company had not complied with a 2017 order to provide decryption keys to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Lastly, we call on Internet companies to resist unfounded and extra-legal orders that violate their users’ rights. We also call the United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union (EU), the United States and other concerned governments to challenge Russia’s actions and uphold the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and privacy online as well as offline. ![]() ![]() We call on Russia to stop blocking Telegram and cease its relentless attacks on Internet freedom more broadly. We, the undersigned 26 international human rights, media and Internet freedom organisations, strongly condemn the attempts by the Russian Federation to block the Internet messaging service Telegram, which have resulted in extensive violations of freedom of expression and access to information, including mass collateral website blocking. ![]() Russia: Telegram block leads to widespread assault on freedom of expression online The group now includes 53 international and Russian human rights, media and internet freedom organisations. This caught the attention of other international as well as domestic organisations that have subsequently added their backing to the call. Update (): Shortly after Russia started to restrict access to Telegram by blocking millions of IP addresses at the end of April, a coalition of 26 international organisations published an initial statement (see below), condemning Russia’s actions and calling on the authorities to uphold freedom of expression.
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