The joys of stingy telegrams: Durov vs Roskomnadzor
Exactly a week ago, on April 16, Roskomnadzor (RKN) began blocking the Telegram messenger, which is popular mainly in both Russian capitals. As you know, the owner and one of the creators of Telegram is Russian businessman Pavel Durov, the author of the no less popular social network VKontakte.
Threats from the Russian authorities to block Telega, as users of the messenger are often called, were voiced a long time ago. According to the version disseminated by Durov and his support group, the reason for the attacks was the FSB’s desire to obtain encryption keys in order to freely read closed communication channels and private messenger chats, in which terrorists discuss their sinister plans and are recruiting into the considerably thinned ranks of the “barmalei.”
According to Pavel Durov, he cannot transfer the encryption keys to any special service in principle, since the Cart was originally developed as a platform for free communication, and its server part, along with the encryption keys, responsible for a certain region, is outside the jurisdiction of states this region.
Some Bloody Gebnya wants to seize servers and other ciphers, but here they are faced with a non-illusory bummer: the hardware and software are outside your jurisdiction, guys! Freedom is above all!
In short, comrades from the FSB turned to the liberal-minded programmer Pavel Durov for help - to transfer, at the request of the court, the data of six users of closed Telegram channels suspected of involvement in terrorists, and he so principledly and impartially informs them head-on - they say, “this is you You’ll never get it from me, spy Gadyukin!” They say that Pavel Durov did not have the kind of upbringing to cooperate with “deep drilling firms” and spies on innocent citizens.
However, among people who do not suffer from sclerosis and follow the news, Pavel Durov’s words cause serious skepticism, turning into complete distrust.
For example, not more than a year ago, the principled Pasha ran to the FBI at the first whistle. The Bureau was also puzzled by security issues and demanded that the keys to the Cart be handed over to its specialists. Pasha tried to say something indignantly, but the American security officials posed the question point blank and doubted that Mr. Duroff would be able to successfully place shares of his company on American and other Western stock exchanges.
Since then, this topic has been hushed up, but judging by Durov’s personal prosperity and the appearance in his plans to promote some homemade durcoins, he got along with the American Gebnya.
The very practice of extraterritoriality of servers, which Durov hopes for as a panacea for the interest of intelligence services, crumbles to dust when faced with the harsh reality in which the US state extends its internal laws to the rest of the world. Thus, Durov’s own statement that the main Telegi data center located in Berlin is “equally protected from both the NSA and the KGB” only causes cheerful laughter, since there is also the BND and a bunch of other Western intelligence services dependent on the United States.
Or a London data center serving the whole of Europe - completely independent? As they said in Odessa, “go to Privoz, buy a herring and fool her.”
But crowds of Durov’s fans, among whom there are many Telega users, prefer to ignore the cooperation of their idol with foreign security forces - they won’t wish anything bad - they themselves, they say, are from the Free World, while Russia is “still a “scoop”, if not North Korea."
However, the portrait of Durov appears completely inconsistent with reality. The little boy is trying his best to be partially pregnant and at the same time pose as an uncompromising champion of freedom of information. In fact, it turns out that Pasha Durov is a tridvaras in the bad sense of the word, since he demonstrates his principles only in Russia, and in the West he is forced to make any concessions in order to preserve capital and a handshake.
Here we will not even begin to cite his arrogant, idiotic statements about Russia, but only study his motives and actions.
Children, having heard enough about the Internet as the kingdom of freedom, continue to pray for Durov and are ready to participate in any stupid campaign in his support.
Unfortunately, in our time without ideas, many citizens were not instilled with logic and an understanding of dialectics from childhood. If the abstract Vasya Pupkin is free on the Internet, like a bird in a spacious cage, with his own desktop and router, then companies with billions of dollars in turnover, not to mention special services, have even more freedom and opportunities. And no matter what Vasya Pupkin thinks about himself under the whispers of Pavel Durov, but all his correspondence, posting photos of naked asses on social networks and visiting porn hubs secretly from his parents are clearly visible if any of the serious organizations is interested in the personality of the nerd Pupkin.
In order not to go far, let us remember the recent scandal with the owner of Facebook, Marik Zuckerberg, and the company Cambridge Analytica, which collected data from tens of millions of users on social networks and, based on it, developed methods for interfering in elections and other important public events in different countries of the world.
But let's return to our carts. After the start of blocking of Durov’s messenger, a wave of negativity directed at Roskomnadzor passed across Russia.
The most bruised children consider the actions of the RKN to be arbitrary, and not at all actions taken on the basis of a court decision.
However, one cannot help but admit that the actions of the RKN are largely illogical and the organization acts like a bull in a china shop.
In particular, as soon as the blocking of Telegram began, the work of companies legally operating in Russia, Amazon, Google, and Appstore, was disrupted, and the gaming services of Sony and Nintendo, as well as some other Internet services, fell. Durov and his Telegram instantly received the status of “fighters against Russian totalitarianism” in the West, and Google and Apple were asked to help Telegram bypass Russian blocking.
Did someone need politicization of the conflict and additional advertising for Durov and his brainchild? Receive and sign.
According to the head of the RKN, Alexander Zharov, the efforts made succeeded in achieving a 30% reduction in users of Durov’s messenger. But at what cost? Perhaps, RKN officials are not particularly concerned about the reputational losses - they were given a task, they took it up and began to drag and not let go, issuing a directive on execution to the providers.
Who fell off Telegram first? Those who in the computer subculture are called “lamers”, “anyoneers” and other derogatory terms. Basically, these are people who have the most rudimentary understanding of how the Internet works, bypassing blocks, etc.
Has the main objective been achieved – cutting off channels of communication and recruitment of terrorists? Considering the 70% failure rate, it’s unlikely. And even where the Cart is more or less blocked, the obstacles and slingshots of the RKN get by just fine, since Durov took care of this in advance, distributing recipes for loopholes. It turns out that the blocking of the Cart was done by honest people?
The fact that a third of law-abiding Russians have lost access to their favorite channels and news aggregators personally does not make me happy, while the abstract Ibrahim with a beard and a turban will bring in some local hacker or force him to learn how to bypass the blocking of his “brothers in faith.” And this course will take at most half an hour, including downloading the necessary software.
Thus, RKN only demonstrated a long-standing defect of the Runet that has developed over more than 20 years - the topology of networks in which it is impossible to fully block anything. In order to compensate for this defect, it is necessary to purchase expensive, special certified equipment, which, according to experts, is simply not enough on the market. Installing uncertified equipment is a waste of money, and the NSA will thank you.
Again, we all know very well how the holes will be patched. Firms selling special equipment are already rubbing their paws in anticipation of super-profits, and in most regions the costs can, without further ado, be borne by local providers, who in turn will be forced to compensate for losses by increasing tariffs and/or reducing Internet speed. That is, all losses will again hit the end user's pocket.
In general, the actions of the RKN are not only ill-considered, but also have a certain personal nature - causing damage to the unpleasant type Pavel Durov at any cost.
Thus, the conflict between RKN and Durov and Telega highlighted a serious and very controversial problem - the performance of their direct duties by state security agencies and the observance of personal freedom of citizens, especially considering the huge amounts of money invested by the US government in the global electronic espionage systems Echelon and PRISM. The Chinese comrades are not lagging behind the Americans. Again, the term “Twitter revolution” was not pulled out of thin air.
But the CCP at least offered a worthy alternative to all these Western online gatherings, investing huge amounts of money in the programming company Tencent. China has its own analogues of Google and YouTube, and a WeChat user will not exchange his native messenger, which from birth takes into account all the requirements of the Chinese government, for the “free” Telegram.
It’s clear that you can’t prove anything to the inflamed children who threw airplanes at the windows on Sunday to support the luminary Durov. Terrorism for them was a long time ago and not true, and is already somewhere far away. But when they themselves or their relatives and friends suffer in a terrorist attack, they will be the first to scream: “Gebnya, why are they paying you salaries?!”
From all of the above it follows that, first of all, it is necessary to develop our own services that are competitive with Western ones. And the actions of regulatory authorities should not cause inconvenience to law-abiding citizens. And I would really like the actions of the regulatory authorities to be thought out in advance, so that the possibilities coincide with the statements, and not as they are now. Because speaking up and messing up is a shame for them and a loss for the state.
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