13:02 25.02.2021

Court orders Internet providers to close access to Telegram channels suspected of connection with Russia

3 min read
Court orders Internet providers to close access to Telegram channels suspected of connection with Russia

Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv ordered Internet providers to close access to Telegram channels Resident, Legitimate, Cartel and Gossip Girl, which, according to the SBU, were used to destabilize the situation in Ukraine by order of Russian special services.

According to the website of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization, the information was provided by the Department of Counterintelligence Protection of the State's Interests in the Sphere of Information Security of the Security Service of Ukraine.

"To seize intellectual property rights that arise from Internet users when using Telegram-channels Resident [..],Legitimate [..], Cartel [..] and Gossip Girl [..], by the obligation of Internet providers, operators, telecommunications providers operating in Ukraine, in accordance with Part 2 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine On Telecommunications, included in the register of operators, telecommunications providers and the list of which is contained on the official website of the National Commission for State Regulation of Communications and Informatization, to close access to them," the Commission quotes an excerpt from the decision of the investigating judge Svitlana Kolesnyk.

The document also says that access to the listed Telegram channels must be closed until the seizure of property in the manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine.

The decision of the court is subject to immediate execution, but can be appealed directly to the Kharkiv Court of Appeal within five days from the date of its announcement.

As reported, on February 1, the SBU said that the cyber specialists of the special services exposed a large-scale intelligence network, which was engaged in intelligence and subversive activities commissioned by the special services of the Russian Federation. The network included residents of Kharkiv and Odesa, so-called "Russian Spring" activists.

According to the SBU, the special services of the Russian Federation involved Ukrainian citizens in creation and administration of a number of Telegram channels: Legitimate, Resident, Cartel, Gossip Girl, Black Quarter, Political Arrangement, Atypical Zaporizhia, Trempel Kharkiv, Odesa guy, Dnipro live, Mykolaiv live, Kherson live.

The SBU found out that the "main manager" of the intelligence network is a resident of Odesa, one of the organizers of the riots during the Odesa Antymaidan. Now he is wanted by law enforcement agencies under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

SBU officers detained a Ukrainian citizen in Kyiv, one of the key participants in the proceeding. She and another member of the intelligence network were declared suspected of committing a crime under Article 111 (Treason) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The head of the network, who is hiding from the investigation abroad, has also been declared in absentia on suspicion of treason.

AD
AD
AD
AD