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Russia Begins Blocking Telegram Messenger (reuters.com)
Russia's state telecommunications regulator said on Monday it had begun blocking access to Telegram messenger after the company refused to comply with an order to give Russian state security access to its users' secret messages (encryption keys). From a report: The watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said in a statement on its website that it had sent telecoms operators a notification about blocking access to Telegram inside Russia. The service, set up by a Russian entrepreneur, has more than 200 million global users and is ranked as the world's ninth most popular mobile messaging app.
On the plus side, if they block people from using messaging devices, that's fewer people they have to kill when people use the messaging devices to report on news that Russia finds embarrassing.
RIP Borodin.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
When Russian security services ban your product because encryption too good, isn't that like seal of approval for the encryption?
Zemlya svobodnogo, tovarishcha.
Silicon Valley doesn't get a pass because they are currently the 'hot thing'. No one is exempt from rules and regulations.
Except Vladimir, of course. But he can fuck off too.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
If they block Telegram because it is secure. Is VPN secure as well or not? It looks like VPN is not secure so they don't block it.
Wow, remember when Rusky bots made an effort of blending in?
How dare the notions of free speech, liberty, and equality invade Mother Russia! They are threats to security and safety. They must be crushed!
Crush them!
I wonder why Telegram was targeted specifically. Was it the group chats which there is a key that can be handed over? Why Telegram over other secure providers?
even if u could theres vpn, tor, alt dns, etc., etc.
You must be a bot, or braindead. Governments and Corporations, in general, ignore the very rules they hold us to.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
The soil of a free comrade.
WTF do you mean by that?
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Blame it on /.'s non-existent Unicode support.
Could this mean something like "fellow countryman" "fellow patriot"? Have you tried translating this using yandex? Yandex translated it. , = Land of the free, Tovarisch. When I put in by itself yandex translated it as comrade. "Land of the free comrade" I think its a joke about authoritarianism.
This seems counterproductive. The conflict is making more people aware of Russian snooping which will only push more non-secure users to use a secure messaging app.
Is there an equivalent of the Streisand effect for this situation?
I went to the trouble of putting it in Cyrillic and then Slashdot ignored it.
First, a government actually bans its use because they can't spy on you.
Two, no Russian spammers on the network trying to flood it with fake news.
And I honestly don't know what's the better reason...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I don't need to translate this using yandex, I am pretty fluent in Russian as it is, and besides I don't really like yandex.
"Zemlya" means land in the sense of earth, soil or real estate. Land in the sense of a country would be "strana". And I haven't heard Russians using "comrade" for three decades.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
It's a weird situation really. Whatsapp/Facebook messenger and Viber, which are no less popular in this country, are not blocked which begs the question whether these three instant messengers shared their encryption keys with the authorities.
Also, to understand what this country really is, read for instance this. It's a mafia/authoritarian state where money rules and there's no law for those who have no money. Don't even get me started on health care, education and science - which are either semi-dead or completely dead, depending on your point of view.
Because they have a way in. Why do you think it takes 2 weeks before Apple or Google approve the app every time there are small changes to how it works? Because the app must be modified for certain target markets or individuals.
It's very convenient to be able to deliver court orders to two American companies that serve 99% of all apps onto phones world wide.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Silicon Valley gets as pass as long as them support the DNC.
As soon as the DNC decides it isn't getting it's share or that a company is too neutral, they get Zuckerberged.
As far as Russia goes, they just need to ask their friend Hillary and she'll make it happen.
Just like the Uranium deal.
I blame it on a very bad machine translation. Never use it unless you have at least some grasp of the target language.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
actually, "tovarishch [rank]" (i.e. "comrade [rank]") is still the standard form of address in the russian army :)
Silicon Valley doesn't get a pass because they are currently the 'hot thing'. No one is exempt from rules and regulations.
To quote the Russian Ambassador to the UK when giving an award to James Bond for saving Silicon Valley from Max Zoren, "After all, where would Russian computers be without it?"
Learn your own history, Russian!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Tak, tochno.
The rank is not optional in this case, though.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Fuck off Ivan
Because all I'm seeing is red, a bunch of white folk and just a hint of black 'n blue :D
Seriously though, all the things America used to rant about being 'you commie bastards' have now been implemented here in America: Checkpoints travelling between regions, check. Department of Homeland(To cover up the Fatherland/Motherland bullshit) Security, check. Secret Police rifling through your correspondence, check. Disappearing into the Gulag, check. Not being patriotic enough, check comrade. Wealthly Oligarchs getting away with murder while common man beaten for stealing a loaf of bread, check.
All the while government services getting made worse for the common man and better for the uncommon one.
Latest update: Telegram still working in Russia. 16M IP addresses have been blocked today (compared to about 30K as of yesterday), including many legitimate Amazon and Google addresses. Many service disruptions throughout the country. One of the goals is to make Amazon refuse service to Telegram the way it has successfully been done with the Zello Internet walkie-talkie.