Russia’s federal censor, Roskomnadzor, says it’s in talks with the instant messengers Viber, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, though the agency claims it has no immediate plans to register these services as “information distribution organizers,” which would impose strict requirements, including the need to surrender encryption keys to Russia’s Federal Security Service.

“We’re having a heated dialogue with Telegram,” said Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov, calling his agency’s contacts with the other three messengers “consultations.”

Telegram is currently fighting its obligations as an “information distribution organizer” in court. Roskomnadzor registered the instant-messaging service earlier this year after Telegram founder Pavel Durov reluctantly provided the regulator with his company’s information. Telegram subsequently refused to obey Russian “anti-terrorist” legislation requiring registered “distributors” to decrypt all users' communications for the Russian government.

On November 8, the newspaper Izvestia reported that Facebook and Twitter have agreed to store Russian users’ data on servers located in Russia. Roskomnadzor says that Twitter informed it in a letter that the company has agreed to localize Russian users’ data. Facebook has supposedly even decided to open its own office in Russia, so the company has local representation, Izvestia claims. Neither company has commented publicly on the rumors, and both Roskomnadzor and the Russian media have claimed unreliably many times in the past that the American social media giants have “decided to obey Russian regulations.”