On March 8, officials in two areas of Russia, Dagestan and Chechnya, decided to block the Telegram messaging app. They are worried that it could be misused by people who want to cause trouble, especially after riots at an airport in Dagestan. Yuri Gamzatov, the digital development minister in Dagestan, explained that Telegram was used during the protests against Israel last October when angry crowds tried to attack passengers coming from Israel. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the police have arrested several people for their actions.
During the riots, people shared messages on Telegram that called for violence against those arriving on the flight. Telegram said they would remove those harmful channels. The app is widely used in Russia and many other countries, with almost 1 billion users worldwide. In the past, Russia tried to block Telegram in 2018 but wasn’t successful. Gamzatov mentioned that Telegram might be unblocked later, but for now, he advised people to consider using other messaging apps.
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