Russia has never quite been a bastion of free speech. Its authoritarian government works to ensure that its citizens only hear and say things that it approves of. With the rise of technology and the internet, this has become increasingly difficult. The Russian government has an office that is responsible for the censorship of electronic communication, called Roskomnadzor. Within the past few days, Roskomnadzor took offense at a messaging app called Telegram.
Telegram is a messaging app that made waves when it launched in 2013. The app features a custom security protocol that allows for end-to-end encryption, meaning that every message is completely encrypted from the moment it leaves one device until the moment it arrives on another. Telegram is not owned by any larger parent company (a la WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger), and the messages and other data send through Telegram cannot be accessed by anyone except the sender and recipient, not even the creators of the app. Telegram’s secure and encrypted nature obviously puts it at odds with a government that is heavily involved in censoring its citizens, so a few days ago, Russia decided to block Telegram (or, at least, they tried…)
Russia’s argument for blocking Telegram is that its focus on privacy makes it the perfect tool for terrorism. Indeed, this is a legitimate issue. Any app that features full privacy is going to attract those who have a good reason to keep their activities private (that is, they are doing something illegal). A similar problem exhibited itself in Indonesia last year, where the Indonesian government issued Telegram an ultimatum: block terrorist propaganda or the app would be banned. Telegram ended up complying with the request. It formed a team that combed through Indonesia’s Telegram communities and removed terrorist-related content. Although Russia does have a legitimate excuse for wanting to block Telegram, one has to wonder if there are ulterior motives. This also goes back to the age-old question of privacy vs. protection. Are people willing to give up their privacy in order for the government to (ostensibly) provide more protection and be more proactive in stopping issues before they start? In the United States, the answer is no, and I’d imagine that many Russians would agree. Nonetheless, the Russian government still went forward with blocking Telegram.
Russia’s Telegram blocking was done in perhaps the worst way possible. Telegram assets and services are hosted on Google’s and Amazon’s cloud platforms, and so rather than identify specific Telegram servers, the Russian government issued blanket bans on IP addresses associated with either cloud hosting provider. In total, the Russian government blocked 15.8 million IP addresses (each one potentially a different website or web service) in the name of blocking Telegram. Many websites completely unrelated to Telegram have gone down as a result, including the popular messaging app Viber, used by many Russians. This blanket ban is the equivalent of finding one weed in a flowerbed and then deciding that the best course of action would be to dig up the entire garden.
The Russian government’s clumsy ban shows just how far it is willing to go in its aim of censorship. It is willing to take out large sections of the internet with little thought just to (try to) stop one encrypted messaging app from functioning. There are, of course, ways around the ban, and many are willing to risk potentially getting caught so that they can continue to message in private. Only time will tell if the Telegram ban holds, and where the Russian government will focus its censorship efforts next. For now, the Telegram ban reveals that the Russian government is deathly afraid of giving its citizens a voice, lest it hear what they have to say.
Sources:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/17/17246150/telegram-russia-ban
http://piunikaweb.com/2018/04/17/telegram-is-still-alive-in-russia-despite-huge-collateral-damage/
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/17/15980948/telegram-indonesia-isis-terrorism-moderation-ban