The draft law on the control of telephone conversations, which was adopted in the first reading, and failed in the second, as a result of which, the government officials convened an extraordinary session without opposition representatives, evoked panic among the authorities themselves. They are actively setting up Signal, even though they were assuring citizens that the content of the law would not be accessible to anyone. By the way, recently the Commandant Tigran Avinyan, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister Eduard Aghajanyan, Spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan and some others have joined Signal. This has been the cause of various humorous comments on the Social Networks. Petros Ghazaryan, the head of the Public Television’s news department, wrote on his Facebook page: “I would never have thought that there were so many Uncatchable Joes on FB. You can contact me using the old methods.” In the comments of the post, Edmon Marukyan, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party, posted a screenshot proving that Petros Ghazaryan also has Signal.
Time will tell how effective the new amendments to the laws on “Legal regime of the emergency state” and “Electronic communications” will be in the fight against coronavirus.
