Rights activists urge Telegram to make paid reactions to posts anonymous. Russians face prosecution over them.
The human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” has sent an open letter to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, calling on him to make paid reactions to posts on the messenger anonymous because Russian users face criminal prosecution over them.
The human rights activists say paid reactions and the way Telegram’s internal currency, Telegram Stars, works constitute a “critical vulnerability in the privacy architecture of the Telegram messenger,” leading to “unfounded, politically motivated prosecution of the platform’s Russian users on serious charges of “financing terrorism.””
Right now, a law enforcement practice is taking shape in Russia under which sending paid reactions to posts, even in nonpolitical, news, or personal channels, is classified by investigative authorities as transferring funds to formations banned in Russia that are part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As an example, the human rights activists cited the case of Mikhail Antonovich, a 56-year-old resident of Tyumen, who was charged with “financing terrorism” over 292 rubles and 99 kopecks for nine paid reactions to posts in the Telegram channels Nevzorov; Nakipelo. Michael Naki; and Sasha Shpak Official.
The authors of the letter propose that Durov:
- make paid reactions anonymous by default for all users,
- add a privacy setting option to “always send reactions and stars anonymously,” applied by default to all chats and channels,
- give channel administrators the right to fully hide lists of the top senders of paid reactions or senders from specific countries,
- add a warning in the messenger for users about the risks and offer them the option to send “stars” anonymously,
- hide lists of users who have previously sent “stars.”
We do not intend to offer complete systemic solutions to this serious problem, but we are confident that the Telegram team will be able to find them. […] Protecting users from government pressure has always been declared a fundamental principle of Telegram. Today, the technical transparency of the lists of Stars senders directly threatens the freedom and lives of hundreds of people.
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