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Photo by Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters
Almost 10 thousand people participated at a rally today, in support of freedom of the internet, in Moscow.
This was reported by Radio Svoboda.
Opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was at the rally. The politician condemned the actions of the authorities and supervisory agencies, which blocked the encrypted messaging app, Telegram. He said that the police ordered him not to call on protesters to join another rally, scheduled by him for May 5.
Activists and representatives of information technology businesses, spoke against the blocking of Telegram. They were for the freedom of the internet and freedom of speech. People were chanting political slogans such as, “Russia will be free,” and “Tsar, go away!”
Earlier, the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, called on Moscow residents to join the rally, which was organized by the Libertarian Party of Russia. The party has called the attempts to block Telegram “a national shame.”
Monday’s demonstration took place exactly two weeks after a court announced that the Russian government was allowed to block Telegram, because it did not want to hand over encryption keys to security services, possibly allowing them to read all messages sent using the app. Telegram claimed that it was technically impossible to do so.
https://twitter.com/KuznetsovaKatja/status/990915439252385793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2018%2F04%2Fprotest-moscow-telegram-app-ban-180430124103204.html&tfw_site=AJENews
The bid to block Telegram has increased concerns that the government is seeking to silence dissent, as Vladimir Putin, who has been president or prime minister since 1999, heads into a new six-year term.
Telegram is one of the most popular messaging apps in Russia.
