Telegram wants to make its FSB dispute a UN issue

Lawyers for from the “Agora” human rights group representing the instant messenger Telegram have appealed to the United Nations for support in their dispute with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which demands that Telegram surrender encryption keys for all user correspondence.

In a letter to David Kaye, the UN’s special rapporteur on promoting and protecting the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Agora described the FSB’s demands as a “serious threat to freedom of expression.”

On December 12, a Russian court upheld an 800,000-ruble ($13,650) fine for ignoring FSB orders to turn over the encryption keys on all user correspondence. Telegram says this is technologically impossible, given that the service’s administrators themselves don’t have access to encryption keys, which are generated on users’ own devices. Telegram has compared its showdown with the FBI-Apple encryption dispute in 2015 and 2016, when the U.S. company received and flouted a dozen government orders to unlock cryptographically protected mobile phones.

The court’s decision to fine Telegram for ignoring the FSB’s orders is sufficient legal grounds for Russia’s federal regulators to order Internet providers to begin blocking Telegram.