Telegram says Apple started blocking its global iOS updates when Russia banned it

“Unfortunately, Apple didn’t side with us.” That’s how Telegram founder Pavel Durov described his company’s current relationship with the U.S. tech giant, after revealing this week that Telegram hasn’t been able to update its iOS app since mid-April, when Russia’s federal censor started blocking Telegram and ordered Apple to remove it from the App Store.

“While Russia makes up only seven percent of Telegram’s user base, Apple is restricting updates for all Telegram users around the world since mid-April,” Durov explained. “As a result, we’ve also been unable to comply fully with GDPR for our EU-users by the deadline of May 25, 2018.”

Earlier this week, Roskomnadzor announced that it’s given Apple one month to delete Telegram from its App Store in Russia, also demanding that it stop sending Telegram’s push notifications to users in Russia, threatening to “take action” against iOS services, if it refuses to comply.

Largely without success, Roskomnadzor has been trying to cut access to the instant messenger Telegram since April 16. According to one report that month, Telegram’s audience in Russia surged like never before after the government started trying to block it.