Russia's state telecommunications regulator said on Monday (April 16, 2018) that it had begun blocking access to messenger service Telegram, implementing a decision by a Russian court from last week.
On Friday, a Moscow court sided with the regulator, Roskomnadzor, in ordering to block Telegram in Russia "immediately." The court ruling follows a Federal Security Services (FSB) demand for Telegram to hand over the "encryption keys" that would allow authorities to read the private conversations of users after the April 2017 St. Petersburg metro terrorist attack.
* Telegram will still work on non-Russian ISP (think VPN here).
It is worth considering the effect that results from a government (any government) being able to block access to a resource on the Internet across an entire country. Of course, this isn't new - China has pretty much complete control of the Internet within its borders - but when a government can shut off the Internet (or access to specific information on the Internet) that can be an issue for human rights and the free exchange of ideas.
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