Russia Asks Apple to Remove Telegram From App Store

After banning Telegram, the Russian government has now sent requests to Apple and Google to remove the messaging app from their respective app stores. The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications or Roskomnadzor banned Telegram in the country on the orders of a Russian court.

From the report:

Russia’s state telecommunications regulator said on Tuesday it had sent requests to Google and Apple asking them to remove the Telegram messenger service from their application stores, the Interfax news agency reported. The watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said on Monday it had begun blocking access to Telegram, implementing a decision by a Russian court.

The Federal Security Service wants access to the encrypted chat messages of Telegram users citing security reasons. Telegram’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, refused to comply with the FSB’s order thereby leading the Russian court to order a ban on the messaging service.

It remains to be seen if Apple and Google will comply with the Russian government’s request. Apple had previously complied with the Chinese government request to remove VPN apps from the Chinese App Store.

[Source]