The creators of Telega, an unofficial Telegram client, have filed a complaint with Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) over Apple’s removal of their app from the App Store.
“We found ourselves in a situation where the app has been removed from the App Store, the developer account has been blocked, and the ability to launch already-installed apps on iOS has been restricted,” the Telega developers said.
Over two weeks, they received no “specific reasons or technical findings” from Apple explaining the removal. The app’s creators say they could have clarified their position but were “simply not given any specifics.”
The Telega developers are asking the FAS to “assess Apple’s actions.” “We believe our app should be returned to the App Store, and Apple’s procedures should change so that other developers do not face such arbitrary treatment,” they said.
The developers also threatened to file lawsuits against media outlets and bloggers who, in their view, are spreading false information that damages their reputation.
The complaint from Telega JSC is “not the first signal regarding Apple,” the Russian business news outlet RBC reported the FAS as saying. The agency said Apple’s actions may show signs of violating competition law, and that violations of antitrust legislation carry corresponding legal consequences.
Telega gained popularity in Russia after Telegram was blocked. On April 9, the app disappeared from the App Store with no official explanation. The Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported that the likely cause was the revocation of security certificates, and that Cloudflare had flagged two domains associated with Telega as spyware. In mid-April, iPhone users began receiving warnings that Telega “contains malicious code.”
IT experts believe Telega is connected to VK. It has also emerged that the app accesses users’ personal data and intercepts traffic — meaning it can monitor who is communicating with whom and when.
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