In addition, Roskomnadzor has reportedly told Apple and Google to remove the app from their storefronts. The agency has also metered out some punishment to both Amazon and Google, since Telegram uses the pair's infrastructure for its own backbone. In order to block Telegram's access in the country, Russia has indiscriminately blocked the better part of two million IP addresses owned by both companies, which means other services that use the same hosts are also at risk of disruption.

The country is adopting a similar playbook to the one it used while battling Zello, another secure messenger service. Zello, which offered walkie-talking services, became popular with political protesters in areas like the Ukraine, Turkey and Hong Kong. Much like in the Telegram case, a huge number of AWS IPs were blocked in Russia, forcing Amazon to ask Zello to switch provider. Another casualty of this policy was LinkedIn, which was blocked in Russia back in 2016 for refusing to bow to the country's demands for access to user data.

The fight between Telegram and Russia is the same one playing out between many tech companies and governments around the world. Platforms are built to be secure and can potentially put communications beyond the reach of the authorities. A similar fight took place in the US between Apple and the FBI following the San Bernardino attacks. And, like then, Telegram's clash with the FSB began after 2017's St Petersburg Metro bombing.

Russian law forces messaging providers to sign up with the government and store six months of user correspondence. Should the police or security services require this information, even without a warrant, it is to be handed over without delay. Since digital communications are encrypted, most companies are required to hand over the decryption keys. It wasn't until early 2017 that Telegram officially signed up as a listed information distributor.

Unfortunately for Telegram, it had become infamous for its popularity with some terror groups, including Daesh. In 2015, Telegram founder (and Russian native) Pavel Durov said he knew the platform was being used by nefarious characters. When asked how he felt about this state of affairs, he responded that protecting the privacy of his users was paramount. It did, however, begin closing public channels that were seen to encourage violence and, later, began cracking down on inappropriate content.