Telegram use in Russia faces rising blocks and slowdown as regulators tighten controls.
Summary
- Telegram blocked 238.8k channels on Feb 15 and 187.3k on Feb 16, taking total blocked groups and channels to over 7.463m since Jan 1.
- Russia fully blocked WhatsApp and removed its domains from DNS, steering users toward the state-backed Max messenger amid broader social-media restrictions.
- Despite throttling and potential April 1 blocking, Russian users increasingly rely on VPNs and alternative apps like imo to keep messaging access.
Telegram has begun blocking illegal content and has sufficient time to meet Russian regulatory requirements, according to a senior parliamentary committee member overseeing the matter.
Andrey Svintsov, deputy chairman of the Committee on Information Policy at the State Duma, told state news agency TASS that the messaging platform has started actively complying with Russian Federation requirements. “Over the past week, Telegram has blocked more than 230,000 channels and pieces of content that violated current legislation,” Svintsov stated. “This indicates that Durov’s company has begun to interact more actively.”
Russian authorities slowed traffic to the messenger earlier this month, citing non-compliance with national regulations. Media reports emerged this week suggesting the platform could be fully blocked on April 1, though Russian officials have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
Svintsov said Telegram could fulfill Roskomnadzor’s requirements within one to two months and continue operating in Russia. “In my opinion, Telegram will not be blocked before April 1,” he stated, referring to messenger founder and CEO Pavel Durov.
Roskomnadzor, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, serves as Russia’s telecommunications regulator and media oversight body. According to Svintsov, the requirements include opening a legal entity, storing data on Russian territory, paying taxes and blocking prohibited content. “Opening a legal entity takes a week at most. Moving personal data processing takes another two or three weeks,” the deputy said.
Last summer, reports that Telegram was preparing to establish an office in Russia under the country’s “landing law” were denied by Durov, either directly or indirectly, according to previous media accounts.
Yulia Dolgova, president of the Russian Association of Bloggers and Agencies, told TASS that determining whether Telegram will be fully blocked remains difficult at this stage. She noted that unlike WhatsApp, Telegram is actively taking measures to maintain service functionality. Roskomnadzor completely removed Meta’s WhatsApp domain from its DNS servers last week, effectively blocking access from Russia. Dolgova also noted widespread VPN usage among Russian users to bypass such restrictions.
Telegram, the government and crypto
The Telegram channel Baza, citing government sources, reported that Roskomnadzor is preparing to “begin a total blocking of the messenger” on April 1. In response to media inquiries, Roskomnadzor said it had “nothing to add” to previous statements threatening “sequential restrictions.”
TASS reported this week that Telegram’s administration blocked 238,800 channels and groups on February 15 and 187,300 channels and groups worldwide on February 16, according to updated statistics on the messenger’s website. As of February 17, more than 7.463 million groups and channels have been blocked on Telegram since the beginning of the year, the agency reported.
Telegram ranks as the second most popular messaging application in Russia with 93.6 million users, trailing WhatsApp, which had 94.5 million monthly users before being blocked. As Russia implements restrictive measures against both platforms while promoting the state-backed Max messenger, Russian citizens have increasingly turned to imo, a U.S.-made messaging alternative, according to reports.