The Russian government still has strong influence over Telegram despite lifting a ban on its operation in Russia last year.
However, reported by RadioFreeEurope, Telegram has now temporarily blocked all Telegram chat bots of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during voting in the Russian parliamentary elections.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Telegram would comply with an election law that prohibits campaigning during elections and called the law legal.
The Smart Voting of one of the bots on Telegram is only meant to identify candidates who can replace the dominant United Russia party, not just Navalny's Future Russia party.
Meanwhile, Durov also criticized Apple and Google's move to remove the Smart Voting mobile app from their respective app stores and called it a dangerous precedent to tolerate censorship.
Russia under Vladimir Putin routinely cracks down on any political dissent, including actions against Navalny himself such as attempted assassinations linked to Russian agents and long-term attempts to quash broader Smart Voting efforts.
Russia also threatened Apple and Google with fines and further tried and restricted the internet infrastructure that provides access to Smart Voting.
Whatever the motivation, the decision underscores that fine-line technology companies tend to run in Russia. While they may object to the Putin regime's tight grip on politics and speech, they also cannot afford to antagonize the government if they wish to have any presence in the country.
Telegram may object to this Russian policy, but it risks depriving citizens of the relatively safe avenues of freedom of expression if it violates Russian law.
