Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with (a) Google and (b) Apple on the ability of users to download from their app stores (i) Telegram and (ii) other apps which could be used to promote (A) Russian propaganda and (B) posts by people who have been sanctioned.

Ministers meet regularly with representatives from the tech sector. There are no restrictions on users downloading legal apps such as Telegram. However, the government has sanctioned the parent companies of Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, so that online services, including Telegram, are not permitted to host content from these sanctioned entities for UK users to view.