Russia blocks Google, Amazon IP addresses in bid to ban Telegram

[Progger]

• Russia's Roskomnadzor watchdog began blocking Telegram on Monday after it refused to hand over its encryption keys.
• Roskomnadzor's head Alexander Zharov said it had blocked 18 sub-networks and a significant number of IP-addresses belonging to Google and Amazon.
• Telegram CEO Pavel Durov called for "digital resistance", saying he was prepared to give out millions of dollars worth of grants in bitcoin digital currency to individuals and companies that run proxies and VPNs to support internet freedom.

Read more here....

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/russ...-telegram.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...t-telegram-app
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-r...-idUSKBN1HO1WM
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/17/ru...dent-in-zello/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ted-messaging/
https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/18/17...e-roskomnadzor

[Sherlock]

Would be nice if western media start to cover stories about western censorship and blocks of websites.

Russia is at least not playing the game where they want to look like a liberal democracy. And they block the sites in a transparent way. The Roskomnadzor at least is sending warning emails and does not issue gag orders like their western counterparts.

Some more speculations here: https://cointelegraph.com/news/russian-media-telegram-was-banned-due-to-ico-not-keys-and-terrorism

Otherwise I think that banning IPs of Google and similar megacorps is good. Because then even normal internet users will find out how to get out of official crippled internet.

[Vargoso]

Very difficult situation, our main market is from Russia and we are indeed having some difficulties with this situation, Telegram is very very trending there...well, I'm guessing for every problem a solution, need to think again in good communication ways

Russia is at least not playing the game where they want to look like a liberal democracy. And they block the sites in a transparent way. The Roskomnadzor at least is sending warning emails and does not issue gag orders like their western counterparts.

Well a ban is a ban right?

[Sherlock]

Ban is a ban. But it is not a shadowban. If you are banned in Russia or Turkey, you get info about it. In the west like UK there are shadowbans, where the illusion of freedom and transparency seem to me even more laughable. Also is easier to overcome straight ban than shadowban.

I would probably talk differently if Russia were my main market, that is true.

[Vargoso]

Two weeks later, it seems like the Russian government was not very effective with the ban, other business are suffering it:

The functionality of the Russian internet has been hobbled for two weeks as regulators wildly block IP addresses, and on Thursday a Kremlin spokesperson admitted he still uses Telegram. “It works for me, and there’s nothing to it,” he said

https://gizmodo.com/russia-is-still-...-it-1825561879

Telegram is still widely available in Russia as the country's communications regulator struggles to enforce a nationwide block

"This is the first time when Roskomnadzor failed to block a specific service,"

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/russi...cks-ip-address

[Sherlock]

Telegram does not work for me for couple of hours. We use it as major channel of communication, ppl from Europe report the same.

[Mohsin]

Thanks for this information as many of my friends are claiming that they are unable to acess Telegram and at the same time Twitch and other amazon stuff.

Now I am getting the proper information upon it.

If you are getting Twitch related error in russia, check the guide to fix it.