MOSCOW, October 30 (RAPSI) – The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has ruled to return the lawsuit filed by prominent Russian journalist Alexander Plyushchev against the Federal Security Service (FSB) over the request to obtain information on Telegram messages decoding, the court’s official website reads on Monday.
Plyushchev wrote on his Telegram account that “judge Irina Afanasyeva decided that FSB’s demands to access correspondence, including my own, don’t concern my interests.”
On October 25, Plyushchev and other prominent journalist Oleg Kashin filed lawsuits against FSB. The applicants explained that actions of FSB violate their right to confidential conversation with sources of information.
In June, head of the communications watchdog Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov requested the Telegram management to comply with the Russian legislation or face blocking of the messenger.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has agreed to register the service in Russia. However, he refused to abide by “laws incompatible with Telegram privacy policy,” Durov wrote on his VKontakte (VK) page in late June.
In July, Durov reportedly received the FSB requests to provide information for decoding messages of six app users. In September, law enforcement authorities drew up administrative protocols against Telegram because of law violation, as Durov failed to reply for the request.
On October 16, the court fined the Telegram 800,000 rubles ($14,000) for refusal to provide information to FSB. The service was found guilty of failure to store and (or) furnish information on users and their messages to law enforcement agencies.
According to the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information”, organizers of information distribution on the Internet must submit information about users and their messages to the authorized governmental bodies conducting investigative activities and ensuring the state security.
