This week Russia has stepped up its war on anonymity. After an attempt last April to block the service, on Friday a court in Moscow ordered encrypted messaging app Telegram to pay 800,000 rouble – around €10,600 – for failing to hand over users’ information. But not content with that, on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a new decree that will force mobile phone operators to identify and verify every messaging app used by their customers. Every time a Russian mobile phone user signs up to a new messaging service, that service provider will have to contact the mobile network…

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