Russia’s state communications watchdog on Friday threatened to ban the Telegram messaging app, saying the company behind the service had failed to submit company details for registration.
In a message on its Web site, the Roskomnadzor agency warned that “time is running out” for Telegram to comply with the law.
Otherwise, “Telegram must be blocked in Russia,” it said.
The free instant messaging app lets people exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000 people. It has attracted about 100 million users since its launch in 2013.
In an unusual move, agency chief Alexander Zharov addressed Telegram’s secretive Russian chief executive officer Pavel Durov.
“I publicly call on the Telegram team and personally Pavel Durov: Carry out the Russian law!” Zharov wrote, adding: “The choice is yours.”
The watchdog said it had been sending messages to the company “practically every day” asking it to send company information for Roskomnadzor’s register.
Durov, who had previously refused to bow to government regulation that would compromise the privacy of users, called the threat “paradoxical” on one of his social media accounts.
He said it would force users, including “high-ranking Russian officials” to communicate via apps based in the US like WhatsApp.
The 32-year-old had previously created Russia’s popular VKontakte social media site before founding Telegram in the US.
Durov in April said that the app had “consistently defended our users’ privacy” and “never made any deals with governments.”
However, the service has drawn the ire of critics who say it can let criminals and terrorists communicate without fear of being tracked by police, pointing in particular to its use by the Islamic State group.
The app is one of several targeted in a legal crackdown by Russian authorities on the Internet and on social media sites in particular.
Since Jan. 1, Internet companies have been required to store all users’ personal data at data centers in Russia and provide it to the authorities on demand, and draft legislation that would make it illegal for messaging services to have anonymous users has already secured initial backing in parliament.
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