Russian lawmaker protests Telegram block, calls ban “ineffective and harmful”

In the Siberian city of Tomsk, regional lawmaker Galina Nemtsova staged a public protest against the blocking of the messaging platform Telegram, criticising the move as counterproductive and damaging.

Holding a placard that read, “To defeat fraudsters, they ban Telegram. To defeat pickpockets, would you ban pockets?”, Nemtsova voiced her opposition in a demonstration, Caliber.Az reports per Russian media outlets. 

Nemtsova argued that restricting access to the platform undermines the country’s ability to project influence abroad. She described the ban as a sign of institutional weakness and a failure to pursue more sophisticated policy solutions.

“The ban has no positive effect on the country, on business, or on individual citizens. The country gains no benefit, business suffers direct losses due to slowed operations and the loss of customer traffic, and citizens are deprived of a familiar and convenient channel of communication. It hasn’t even made the work of law enforcement agencies any easier,” the MP wrote on her channel.

She further stated that such measures fail to eliminate criminal activity, as offenders simply migrate to alternative platforms. At the same time, she noted, users are pushed toward other permitted foreign services, “where there is even less control”.

By Sabina Mammadli