Alexander Zharov asks Telegram to register in the registry in order to avoid blocking

Roskomnadzor again threatened to block the Telegram service if it did not send the questionnaire and did not register in the register of information dissemination organizers (ARI). By law, information dissemination organizers are required to store user data in the territory of the Russian Federation for one year and provide them at the request of special services.

This time, the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, delivered a whole open letter . But even from the text of this letter, it is clear that Roskomnadzor will be afraid to block Telegram without corresponding direct instructions from above (note the wording with the words “must be blocked”).

Good day!
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I must admit that at the present moment all the existing possibilities of official communication with the team of the Telegram messenger have been exhausted.

Almost every day, Roskomnadzor sends letters to all available Telegram addresses explaining the requirements of the Russian law on information dissemination organizers.

The requirement is one, and it is simple: fill in the questionnaire sent with information about the company that manages Telegram. And officially sent to Roskomnadzor for inclusion of these data in the register of information dissemination organizers. However, so far we have not received any response from the administration of the messenger.

The inclusion of the messenger in this register means only the readiness of Telegram to work under Russian laws. The current legal status of Telegram in Russia will not change. Already now, by virtue of the law, and not the fact of inclusion in the appropriate register, Telegram must fulfill the duties of the organizer of the dissemination of information.

In the event of an actual refusal to perform the duties of the disseminator, the Telegram in Russia should be blocked. Until we get the required information.

The time allotted to Roskomnadzor by the law to make a decision expires.

Therefore, I publicly appeal to the Telegram team and personally to Pavel Valeryevich Durov: fulfill the Russian legislation!

The choice is yours.

Head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov

Another wording attracts attention: “Inclusion of the messenger in this registry means only Telegram’s readiness to work under Russian laws. The current legal status of Telegram in Russia will not change. ” This already looks like a prayer: they say, guys, well, what you should do, for you, this means nothing. Please just send a questionnaire! Probably, Roskomnadzor has not yet come down so low ...

Recall that earlier Roskomnadzor blocked BlackBerry Messenger, Imo, Line messengers, as well as the Vchat audiovisual chat, which did not register with the distributors of information. But blocking Telegram is a completely different matter. They say that it is used by the Prime Minister of Russia himself, not to mention the millions of other citizens of the Russian Federation. And the saddest thing is that all of them will surely find a way to bypass the lock, if such a thing happened.

Roskomnadzor sent a letter requesting data for entry in the register of dissemination organizers to Telegram in May 2017 . Already in that letter, Roskomnadzor warned Telegram about the possibility of blocking for the refusal to provide data for registration as ORI, but this was in a private letter. Having received no answer, Alexander Zharov promised to personally demand from Pavel Durov a Telegram questionnaire.

UPD. Pavel Durov replied to Zharov’s open letter.