Russia Parliamentary Election 2021: Telegram Blocks Alexei Navalny’s Chatbots During Voting
The Russian government still has a strong influence on Telegram despite lifting a ban last year as the encrypted messaging app has temporarily blocked all of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's chatbots during voting in the country's parliamentary election this weekend.
Moscow, September 19: The Russian government still has a strong influence on Telegram despite lifting a ban last year as the encrypted messaging app has temporarily blocked all of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's chatbots during voting in the country's parliamentary election this weekend. Company founder Pavel Durov said that Telegram would obey an election law barring campaigning during elections, calling the law "legitimate", reports Engadget.
The move comes despite the nature of the bots and Durov's past statements. One of the bots, Smart Voting, was only meant to identify candidates that could unseat the dominant United Russia party, not just Navalny's Russia of the Future party. Fake COVID-19 Vaccine Certificates Sold for Rs 5,500 on Telegram: Report.
Durov also decried tech giants Apple and Google removing the Smart Voting mobile app from their respective app stores, calling it a "dangerous precedent" that tolerated censorship.
The country under President Vladimir Putin has routinely cracked down on any political dissent, including actions against Navalny himself (such as an attempted assassination linked to Russian agents) and a long-running effort to quash the broader Smart Voting effort, the report said.
Officials both threatened Apple and Google with fines and have gone so far as to try and throttle internet infrastructure providing access to Smart Voting, it added.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 19, 2021 11:45 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).