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Court fines messenger Telegram $14,000 for refusal to share info with FSB

Russia’s Federal Security Service set July, 19 as the deadline

© Dmitriy Feoktistov/TASS

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. A court in Moscow has fined the messenger Telegram 800,000 ($14,000) rubles for its refusal to provide information in response to a request from the federal security service FSB needed for decoding users’ messages, a source in the court told TASS.

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"Telegram Messenger Limited Liability Partnership was found guilty under Part 2 of Article 13.31 of the Code of Administrative Procedure … and ordered an administrative fine of 800,000 rubles ($14,000)," the court said.

As follows from the lawsuit, Russia’s Federal Security Service on July 12 addressed Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov with a request for providing information needed for decoding messages exchanged between the users of six phone numbers.

July 19 was set as the deadline.

The request failed to be acted on within the established deadline. There has been no other reply from Telegram, either.

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