How Telegram became the hub of Russian propaganda
This month, Ukraine’s parliament is considering a bill to ban the instant messaging service Telegram as a threat to national security. But over 70% of Ukrainians use it as a major source of information. Headquartered in Dubai, Telegram is purportedly out of the Kremlin’s reach. Durov, while refusing to be drawn on his position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, recently told the Financial Times that it was “very important for the world to retain Telegram as a neutral platform.” It has 900 million monthly users around the world, with the highest numbers of downloads recorded in India, Russia and the United States. Telegram’s popularity, particularly in Asia and Africa, and the lack of oversight and control over anonymous channels have made it the perfect platform to spread Kremlin-orchestrated disinformation.
For my podcast The Day After Tomorrow, I spoke to investigative reporter Irina Pankratova of The Bell about how Telegram has been overwhelmed by wartime propaganda. Access to The Bell, an online Russian-language newspaper, was blocked in Russia last year and its founders have been designated as foreign agents. Pankratova herself was forced into exile in 2022, as it became increasingly dangerous for her to work in Russia.
This conversation has been translated into English from Russian and edited for length and clarity.
Ivan Makridin: If I think back to 2016, Telegram was such a hotbed of liberalism. It was a place of freedom, where all sorts of opposition bloggers and journalists and politicians gathered. But then it changed quite dramatically. Tell us what happened.