Pavel Durov confirms that Apple is restricting Telegram updates from reaching its users globally due to Russian intervention

Telegram founder, Pavel Durov has announced that Apple has not only sided with Russia, it has been restricting the availability of Telegram updates to users all across the world. [caption id=“attachment_4442133” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Telegram, Pavel Durov’s channel.[/caption] Durov through his Telegram channel said that **Russia had banned Telegram** , in April, in Russia for not providing decryption keys to the authorities. The decryption keys ensure that user data is safe. Russian security agencies, like China, have been trying to increase their surveillance over the country. Earlier this month, Russian authorities requested Apple to remove Telegram from App Store in the Russian region. Durov’s post came with reference to some Telegram features such as stickers which were not working properly on iOS 11.4 even though they had fixed the problem weeks ago. While Telegram was removed in April from Russia, Apple has been restricting Telegram from sending updates to its users worldwide on App Store since mid-April. Durov, in his post, further added, “As a result, we’ve also been unable to fully comply with GDPR for our EU-users by the deadline of 25 May 2018. We are continuing our efforts to resolve the situation and will keep you updated.” The war between Russia’s cyberactivists and Russian authorities saw a major turn of events when on 1 May people protested against the authorities to unblock Telegram. People were seen collected in a square and flying paper planes, which also happens to be the icon of the messaging app, as a mark of protest. Nearly 12,000 people had joined the protest. Its founder called the protest a ‘digital resistance’ and promised to fund anyone who could develop proxies and VPNs to give access to Telegram.