A court in Moscow fined Switzerland based messenger service Threema for refusing to comply with the Russian “anti-terror” law.
Threema competes with Telegram and Signal.
Threema was found guilty of non-compliance with rules under the anti-terror law. The law requires tech companies to store data, such as calls, messages, emails, photos, and videos, on their servers for at least six months, and allow the government access to that data if requested.
Speaking to German news outlet Welt am Sonntag, a spokesperson for Threema said that Russian authorities “apparently launched an investigation in March 2022 probably to make an example.”
“Of course, under no circumstances will we hand over any data to Russian authorities,” Threema added, arguing it is governed by Swiss law, which does not allow the transfer of user data to other countries, much less authoritarian countries like Russia.
The company will also not pay the fine.
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