CPJ: Russia’s Telegram throttling another step toward total information control

Berlin, February 11, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to immediately stop throttling the messaging service Telegram, warning that the restrictions represent a deliberate escalation in the Kremlin’s campaign to curtail access to independent information.

Users across Russia have reported widespread disruptions on February 9 and 10, according to data from internet service outage tracking service Downdetector.

Russia’s state media regulator Roskomnadzor said Tuesday it plans to impose further “appropriate restrictions” on Telegram, claiming the platform continues to violate Russian law by failing to combat fraud and to protect its users’ personal data. Earlier Wednesday, a Moscow court fined Telegram a total of 10.8 million rubles (US$140,000) for not removing content banned in Russia. Six more cases against the messaging app are pending in court.

“The deliberate slowdown of Telegram is yet another attempt by Russian authorities to tighten control over the information space and silence independent journalism,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “When authorities interfere with platforms used by journalists and the public to share news, they not only hinder reporting but also leave citizens isolated from reliable information, undermining the public’s ability to make informed decisions.”

Telegram has been a critical platform for independent and exiled media to reach audiences in and outside Russia since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Russia’s blocking of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many news websites. 

Roskomnadzor started restricting YouTube in 2024. In 2025, it moved to restrict voice and video calls on Telegram, WhatsApp, FaceTime, and Snapchat as authorities stepped up pressure on Russians to download and use the government-backedmessaging app Max.

“Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship,” Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov commented on the platform on February 10.

 “There is a law, and it must be followed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

On January 27, Russia’s State Duma passed the first read of a bill allowing the Federal Security Service (FSB) to shut down the internet across the country. In 2025, Russia recorded the highest number of internet shutdowns and the most severe levels of online censorship worldwide, according to independent news outlet The Moscow Times. The internet domains of WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and a number of other media outlets, including BBC News, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Russian service Radio Svoboda, have become inaccessible since Tuesday to Russian users, according to media reports.

In 2018, Telegram resisted Russia’s attempts to censor it, which CPJ and other observers condemned at the time.

CPJ emailed Roskomnadzor for comment but did not immediately receive a response.