Steam, which has an online catalog of more than 100,000 games and is used by around 130 million users around the world, including close to 10 million in Russia, agreed to comply with legislation, the federal censorship agency Roskomnadzor told Interfax.
Lawmakers and parliament officials will be barred from installing Telegram on work devices and will have to use two-factor authentication when using the app for other purposes.
Personal information will be provided to the authorities by "valid legal requests," Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said on Sept. 23.
In March 2023, I noticed a disturbing silence about the messaging platform Telegram’s ties to the Kremlin, despite Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. It was like a Trojan horse – right in the pockets of 70% of Ukrainians. I quickly compiled years of notes on its founder Pavel Durov,
The arrest of Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov has sent ripples of panic and concern through Russia, from online military commentators all the way up to the halls of the Kremlin itself. "They practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army," one Russian pro-war military blogger said
Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov was charged in a French court on Aug. 28 with complicity in the distribution of sexual images of children and other crimes, such as drug trafficking through the messaging app, Reuters reported.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been released from French custody after being held for four days and transferred to court on Aug. 28, news agency AFP reported, citing its undisclosed source.
Arrest warrants for Pavel and Nikolai Durov were issued on March 25 after Telegram "gave no answer" to a previous judicial request to identify the Telegram user, Politico reported, citing an obtained document.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov visited Russia over 60 times since leaving the country in 2014, Kremlingram, a Ukrainian group that campaigns against the use of Telegram in Ukraine, reported on Aug. 27.
Paris prosecutors have outlined potential charges against Pavel Durov, the Russian-born CEO of the messaging app Telegram.
The recent arrest of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was "in no way a political decision," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Aug. 26.
French judicial authorities on Aug. 25 extended the detention of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of Telegram, following his arrest over alleged offenses linked to the messaging app.
Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside of Paris while traveling on his private jet.
Although Russian authorities linked the problems to a cyberattack, the news follows a string of cases of the Russian government restricting the Signal messaging app and reportedly targeting YouTube.
Earlier, Signal users in Russia complained about problems with the messaging app. It no longer opens without a VPN or other bypass tools enabled, the Russian English-language newspaper Moscow Times reported.
Thousands of Russian users say they cannot access YouTube from browsers or phones.
The news comes days after a Russian lawmaker warned that the government would deliberately slow down YouTube loading speeds in response to Google's refusal to comply with Russian authorities' demands.
A special unit of Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU) recruits individuals to perform sabotage operations inside Europe through Telegram and TikTok, the independent Russian anti-corruption project Dossier Center reported on July 23, 2024.
The news comes shortly after Rostelecom, the country's leading telecommunications provider, said there are "technical problems with Google's equipment" which may "affect the download speed and quality of YouTube videos."
Bellingcat's July 9 investigation confirmed, using open-source materials and experts, that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile had struck the Okhmatdyt children's hospital, Ukraine's largest children's medical center.
According to the Justice Department, the bot farm was organized by a Russian national who worked as the deputy editor-in-chief of RT in 2022, and expanded with funding from the Kremlin and collaboration with an official from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
Fake quotes appeared over photos of celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson and Elton John, calling to end aid to Ukraine and describing European collapse.
According to MediaZona, Serhiy Hulko was first arrested on April 3 and detained for 10 days. After his release he was detained again for writing "Glory to Ukraine!" on social media.
"Russia is dominating us on TikTok due to the scale" of its operation, said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of a department countering disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council.
"Although Telegram is a very convenient form of communication, officials and official governmental organizations must be kept off Telegram, and this ban must be implemented immediately," Olha Herasymyuk, the head of the Council, said.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in March 2024 requiring Chinese TikTok's parent company ByteDance to sell its stakes in the company within six months or lose access to U.S. markets.
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