The appeal, published by the rights project Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial, asks that paid reactions — Telegram Stars — be made anonymous by default, or that a separate privacy setting be added for them.
The mechanism the rights advocates call a "critical vulnerability" works as follows: when a user sends Stars, their account automatically appears in the public "Top senders" section under the post. The name and profile are visible unless the person blocks them from being shown. An account can be hidden manually, but anonymity has to be switched on separately under each post — Telegram has no general "always send Stars anonymously" setting.
According to the authors of the letter, investigators are already using this transparency: the list is open, and security services need only review it to identify senders. In Russia, sending a paid reaction is classified as a transfer of funds to banned organizations, the rights advocates report.
"Right now in Russia, law enforcement practice is taking shape under which sending paid reactions to publications even in non-political, news or personal channels is classified by investigative bodies as a transfer of funds to formations banned in Russia that are part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (RDK, LSR and others)," the letter to Durov says.
As an example, Memorial cites the case of 58-year-old Mikhail Antonovich from Tyumen. He is accused of financing terrorism over nine paid reactions under posts in the Telegram channels NEVZOROV, Nakipelo. Michael Naki and Sasha Shpak Official, sent between August and September 2024. The total sum is 292 rubles 99 kopecks. The case is being heard by the Central District Military Court.
The article on financing terrorism (Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code) carries a punishment of up to life imprisonment. The rights advocates note that a criminal case can be opened even over Stars in an ordinary channel if money for a banned organization was previously collected there — the grounds are not limited to a reaction under a post by such an organization.
Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial proposes several options to Telegram: make paid reactions anonymous by default for all users or for users in certain countries; add a permanent anonymity option for Stars to the privacy settings; allow channel administrators to hide the names of top senders; warn users about the risks when sending Stars and offer to send them anonymously. The rights advocates also ask that the profiles of those who have already sent paid reactions in public channels be hidden, replaced by an impersonal total number of Stars.
"We do not presume to propose complete systemic solutions to this serious problem, but we are confident that the Telegram team will be able to find them in order to protect users from unlawful, politically motivated criminal prosecution. <…> Protecting users from state pressure has always been declared a fundamental principle of Telegram. Today the technical transparency of the Stars sender lists directly threatens the freedom and lives of hundreds of people," the authors of the appeal state.