Roskomnadzor has accused Telegram of systematically creating and supporting infrastructure for \"internet punching\" services - bots that illegally collect and sell personal data of Russians. The agency's statement was disseminated by TASS on February 20.
Roskomnadzor pointed out that since 2022, Telegram has removed about 8.3 thousand such services at the request of the regulator, and in 2026 it blocks up to 100 bots weekly. Nevertheless, the situation does not change: new resources appear in place of the blocked ones. The agency demanded that the messenger independently stop the disclosure of personal data, stop providing such services with infrastructure, and remove the possibility of searching for them within the platform.
The scale of the problem is illustrated by the data of the Cyberpolice of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (UBK). In 2025, the department's units liquidated the largest platforms for trading personal data: they seized 18 physical and 19 virtual servers, including those located abroad. The total volume of the confiscated database exceeded 200 terabytes - more than 50 billion lines with names, addresses, phone numbers and information about relatives. The owners and administrators of the resources were brought to criminal liability.
\"Punching\" services - most often Telegram bots - were used not only in fraudulent schemes. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they were used by foreign call centers: in just one month, more than 13 thousand crimes were committed with their help, with a total damage of over 15 billion rubles. In addition, data about military personnel, law enforcement officers and officials were collected through such bots to prepare sabotage and terrorist attacks.
The UBK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that appeals to the administration of foreign messengers remain unanswered and without taking measures provided for by Russian legislation. This translates the conflict from the plane of technical moderation to the legal one: if Telegram continues to ignore the requirements, the regulator receives formal grounds for more stringent measures - up to restricting access to the service, the precedent of which has already been in Russia.
On February 10, Roskomnadzor began work to slow down the Telegram messenger in Russia.
Read more materials on the topic:
- Ministry of Digital Development: Foreign intelligence services have access to correspondence in Telegram
- Large-scale cleanup: Telegram blocked more than 230 thousand channels and groups in a day
- Will Telegram be completely blocked in Russia from April 1?: Roskomnadzor commented on rumors of blocking
