"Battle for the Telegram": 35 users sued the FSB

The public organization "Roskomsvoboda", whose activities are aimed at countering censorship on the Internet, promoting the ideas of freedom of information and self-regulation of the Internet industry, announced the launch of a new public campaign called "The Battle for the Telegram" .

Within this company, a class action was filed on behalf of 35 Telegram users against the FSB. The lawsuit was filed in the Meshchansky Court of Moscow.

“Administrative plaintiffs are users of Telegram, they actively use the service both for correspondence with relatives and friends, and in their professional activities,” said Sarkis Darbinyan, a lawyer and lawyer of the public organization “Roskomsvoboda”. - We ask the court to declare illegal the actions of the FSB to request the Telegram Messenger Limited Liability Partnership company for the information necessary to decrypt the messages of all users, as well as to oblige the agency to withdraw this requirement. The statement of claim states that the actions of the FSB jeopardize the security of communications in general and pose a real threat to an unlimited number of people accessing confidential information to all users of the service. ”
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According to the plaintiffs, the actions of the FSB violate the rights of the plaintiffs to privacy, personal and family secrets, as well as the right to privacy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal and other messages guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and freedoms.

In essence, the plaintiffs are seeking the repeal of certain provisions of Federal Laws No. 97-FZ of 05/05/2014 and No. 374-FZ of July 6, 2016 (in terms of the duties of "information dissemination organizers") and the order of the FSB of July 19, 2016. No. 432, which approved the procedure for providing distributors of information on the Internet with the data necessary for decoding electronic messages of users (this procedure stems from the provisions of the Federal Law). The requirements of the Federal Law and the order of the Federal Security Service force Telegram to abandon end-to-end encryption.

On June 28, 2017, Roskomnadzor included Telegram in the register of information dissemination organizers (ARI), which gave the FSB a reason to require the administration of the service to provide encryption keys for decoding all users' messages. After Pavel Durov’s refusal to issue such keys, Telegram was found guilty of failure to comply with the requirements of the FSB by a decision of the magistrate of the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow, and should be brought to administrative responsibility. Also on the messenger was fined 800 thousand rubles. If the decision comes into force and Telegram does not fulfill the requirement of the FSB, it will be permanently blocked for Russian users at the level of all telecom operators.

According to the plaintiffs, this is a dangerous precedent. If Telegram sends to the FSB algorithms to decrypt all user information, then this messenger will never be safe anymore, and later other messengers may encounter similar problems.

"Roskomsvoboda" declares that certain provisions of the Federal Law No. 97-FZ of 05/05/2014 and No. 374-FZ of 07/06/2016, and joint actions of the FSB and Roskomnadzor limit the constitutional rights of Runet users, and specifically:

• Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
  Everyone has the right to confidentiality of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph and other communications. Restriction of this right is allowed only on the basis of a court decision.
• Article 24 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
  The collection, storage, use and dissemination of information about the private life of a person without his consent are not allowed.
• Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
  Everyone has the right to freely seek, receive, transmit, produce and distribute information in any legal way.

The requirements of the FSB and Roskomnadzor will be appealed in courts, including the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court of Human Rights.

In addition, Roskomsvoboda emphasizes that the requirements of the FSB are essentially impracticable for the “secret chat” mode, because there only the sender and the recipient possess the keys to them (end-to-end encryption). Messages in secret chats are not duplicated on the company's server and are not decrypted by the server administrator. Thus, in this part, the company cannot even physically fulfill this requirement of the FSB. In this case, Roskomnadzor has only one way out - if you follow the current legislation, then it is obliged to block Telegram for non-compliance with the requirements of the Federal Law.

Some analysts are inclined to believe that the threat of Rokomnadzor to block Telegram is a bluff. In reality, the popularity of the messenger is so great, it is used by so many members of the government, ministries and departments that attempts to block the service in Russia will not pass. Even the employees of the famous "Troll Factory" after the last information leaks were transferred to secure telegram chats .



Recently, official channels of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, VTsIOM have appeared in the Telegram. So Telegram in Russia will not be blocked, according to an employee of the “factory”: it is convenient for those in the Russian Federation to use this particular messenger.

Simultaneously with the lawsuit of Telegram users against the FSB, a similar lawsuit filed by Telegram Messenger LLP to invalidate the aforementioned FSB order No. 432 of July 19, 2016 will be considered. The lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is scheduled for March 20, 2018.

“The case against Telegram is not just a private business of a commercial company. This is a case against all Internet users in Russia, ” said Darbinyan.