In a recent move, the messaging platform Telegram has taken action against the official channel of the popular torrent tracker RuTracker, citing violations of copyright laws. The channel, known as @rutracker_news, was established in 2017 and primarily served to keep users informed about project updates, share links to notable torrents, and notify them of technical issues affecting the tracker.
Channel Activity and User Engagement
At the time of its suspension, the channel boasted approximately 29,000 subscribers. While this figure may seem significant, it pales in comparison to the millions of users that RuTracker itself attracts. Furthermore, the channel’s activity level was notably low, with only 21 posts made since its inception. The last updates, shared in January 2025, addressed temporary outages of RuTracker due to issues with Cloudflare, the service responsible for DDoS attack protection.
RuTracker, one of the oldest and largest torrent trackers in the Russian internet space, was launched in 2004 under the name Torrents.ru. It has faced legal challenges, including a court-ordered block in Russia since 2016, following a lawsuit from the publishing house Eksmo. In response to the block, RuTracker severed ties with copyright holders, thereby limiting their ability to target specific torrents through official channels.
Despite these challenges, RuTracker continues to operate, offering access to a vast array of content, although it remains largely inaccessible to most users within Russia. In early 2021, the platform successfully conducted a crowdfunding campaign, raising over 1.8 million rubles to purchase hard drives for storing rare and vintage torrents, highlighting the loyalty and support from its user community.
Telegram’s Evolving Policy on Copyright Enforcement
The suspension of the RuTracker channel aligns with Telegram’s newly adopted, stricter policies aimed at combating internet piracy and safeguarding copyright. Following the controversial arrest of the platform’s founder, Pavel Durov, in France, Telegram moderators have become increasingly responsive to copyright holder complaints, leading to the swift removal of pirated content.
In early 2025, Telegram also blocked channels associated with the notorious shadow online library Z-Library and the meta-search engine Anna’s Archive, both of which provided access to pirated book copies. Prior to this, in September 2024, Telegram had already censored the official Z-Library channel by removing specific posts containing links to pirated resources. The channel’s administration attempted to circumvent these restrictions by sharing links to third-party sites with updated addresses for Z-Library.
