Telegram agrees to register with Russian regulator but it won't share private data

After coming under pressure from authorities in Russia, Pavel Durov the founder of Telegram has agreed to register his company with regulators in the country. He made assurances that no private data of users would be shared with the Russian authorities meaning the country won’t get the data it was after last week when it threatened Telegram with a nationwide ban.

Initially, Mr. Durov refused to comply with Russian authorities which wanted Telegram to be registered with the country’s regulator. The state blamed Telegram for facilitating terrorist attacks in the country.

Roskomnadzor said that Telegram had “started working in the legal framework of the Russian Federation,” following its decision to register. The popular messenger has 6 million users in the Russian Federation, one of the countries where it has a decent size following.

Mr. Durov shared the news of Telegram registering with the Russian authorities on Twitter.

We've no issue with formalities, but not a single byte of private data will ever be shared with any government https://t.co/HZl5b4kWPt
— Pavel Durov (@durov) June 28, 2017

Now that Telegram is registered in the country, basic information about the company will be supplied, but it “won’t comply with … laws that are incompatible with Telegram’s confidentiality policy or protecting people’s private lives,” according to Durov.

Source: The New York Times