The European Court of Human Rights responded to complaints Telegram Messenger LLP and Telegram Messenger Inc., filed in 2018 and 2019 over a fine for refusing to provide FSB encryption keys and the blocking of the messenger in Russia.
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The Court asked the Russian authorities for explanations as to whether the Telegram case touches freedom of expression, whether it pursued a legitimate aim, and whether the messenger’s right to a fair defence and a fair trial was violated.
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In its questions, the ECtHR noted that the defence had not been given enough time to prepare for hearings, there was no prosecution party in the case, and jurisdiction was violated – the proceedings were conducted under the Civil Code rules, and not the Administrative Procedure Code.
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The ECtHR also requested copies of court decisions cited by the FSB, demanding to provide the keys. According to Pavel Chikov, head of the international human rights group Agora, the security services did not present such decisions, and the courts refused to examine these documents.
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He pointed to the illegality, lack of justification, and impracticability of the FSB’s demands.
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“FSB’s demands amounted to an excessive interference with the right to privacy. The Court did not prove the necessity of disclosing confidential information, and the architecture of a service using end-to-end encryption does not allow an administrator to access the contents of secret chats,” – explained Chikov.
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The ECtHR gave the parties until January 28 to reach a settlement. Otherwise, from that date the Russian government would have 12 weeks to respond to the questions.
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“I do not think Russia will ignore the questions; the problem will likely lie in the substance of the answers,” said the messenger’s representative at the ECtHR Damir Gainutdinov.
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In December 2017, Telegram was fined 800,000 rubles for refusing to provide encryption keys to the FSB under the so-called Yarovaya package.
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In April 2018, the Tagansky Court of Moscow ordered Telegram to be blocked on Russian territory.
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The messenger filed complaints with the ECtHR regarding the fines and the blocking.
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On June 18, 2020, with the agreement of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Roskomnadzor unblocked Telegram; however, this did not result in Telegram losing its status as a victim in the ECtHR.
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