Telegram trying to block, but the number of users remains the same

On April 16, 2018, a law prohibiting the work of Telegram in the territory of the Russian Federation came into force . The official reason for blocking is the refusal of the creators of the messenger to provide encryption keys to the Federal Security Service.

Blocking the work of Telegram in the territory of the Russian Federation is engaged in Roskomnadzor. Despite all the efforts of the department staff, the popularity of the messenger remains the same, the number of users almost does not decrease. Telegram developers still manage to bypass the established barriers, as reported by Vedomosti. This is also evidenced by the statistical data of the analytical agency Mediascope.

The researchers found that in May of this year, 3 716 000 people a day worked with Telegram. This is only 1.3% less than in April - until the moment the service was announced.

At the same time, Roskomnadzor has other data that differ from the information provided by Mediascope. In particular, in May of this year, Alexander Zharov announced that after the start of blocking the messenger, the Russian audience of users decreased by 25%. However, neither the sources of statistical data nor the information about the method of obtaining them were announced.

The study involved people aged 12 to 64 years old, living in cities with a population of over 100,000 people. It was in April that Telegram’s audience rate became the highest in the entire history of the company in Russia. Over the six months (from October 2017 to April 2018), the number of users increased by 70%.

Roskomnadzor launched Telegram blocking on April 16 of this year. True, despite the attempts of departments to block the work of the messenger, he continues to work. Telegram, although not without problems, manages to bypass the lock.