Telegram has become the window of war

When Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, was marching on Moscow in late June, all eyes were on one platform: Telegram. Bloggers, citizens and the government brought news to millions of followers through the messaging app, while global media outlets searched it for any information they could to get the world out. Prigozhin himself dramatically told his 1.3 million followers about his rebellion via voice message.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Telegram has gained immense influence over one of the world’s most watched conflicts. Jordan Wilden, digital investigator and founder of the open-source intelligence (OSINT) agency ProZ, says, “Telegram is brilliant for many reasons and for the fact that we managed to see what was happening at such a critical point in history. ” intelligence.

But despite its unique historical role, the platform established by Pavel Durov poses a challenge. Its founder’s emphasis on privacy and hands-off restraint has protected its users from surveillance, but has also allowed Telegram to become a tool of misinformation and manipulation – users drowning out reality in the flood of information pouring in from their phones. Struggling to understand.

“The good news is everybody’s got an outlet but the bad news is everybody’s got an outlet,” says Wilden.

In Russia, Telegram has sometimes become the only source of information amid government censorship. The platform has become a lifeline for Ukrainians trying to stay safe from Russian attacks and keep track of military movements across the border. And for the rest of the world, Telegram has become a window into a war that has destabilized the world.

An important source of information over the past year has been Russian pro-war military bloggers who congregate on Telegram. Russian bloggers first came to prominence in the early 2010s on LiveJournal (known as ZheZhe), a Russian-owned blogging service that hosts writers of all political persuasions. Bloggers turned to Facebook when the platform began to be targeted by authorities.

One of the most influential Russian war channels is Rybar (meaning fisherman), the account is followed by 1.2 million subscribers and has been cited by global media outlets such as CNN and Bloomberg, Rybar’s founder, Mikhail Zvinchuk, says many military bloggers began turning to Telegram after Meta began cracking down on pro-Russian narratives during the country’s involvement in Syria.

Durov, better known as “”Mark Zuckerberg of Russia,” founded the platform in 2013 after his first social network, VKontakte, was taken over by owners close to the Kremlin. Dubai-based Telegram’s popularity in Russia began to grow during the COVID-19 pandemic and then grew rapidly after the invasion of Ukraine. As President Vladimir Putin cracks down on independent media by imposing censorship on war news and blocking social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the platform has become a safe haven for the Russian opposition and its independent media.

But it also allowed pro-war channels to emerge from the fringes, and soon, its influence trickled back into mainstream news outlets. Zvinchuk remembers watching Russia’s main Channel One on the day of Prigozhin’s uprising – all the news was received from the platform.

“The Yevgeny Prigozhin mutiny shows that all the information was disseminated exclusively via Telegram,” says Zvinchuk, a former staff member of the Russian Defense Ministry’s press office. “Telegram has become the main means of information distribution and is trusted more than all traditional media because they have censorship.”

The reason for the fast adoption of Telegram was also its design. Channels can have unlimited followers while the content is not algorithmically driven or ad-interrupted.

“Telegram started to grow in popularity because now people are ready to consume large amounts of information in small chunks like on TikTok,” says Zvinchuk, who ran the channel anonymously from its inception in 2018 until late 2022. Give people everything they need in moments of crisis and in a convenient package.

with a monthly budget of approx. $44,000 Collected through bank transfers, individual donations through patrons and groups, Zvinchuk claims his news is provided by sources on both sides of the war. He says the channel receives information from middle-level managers, soldiers and officers inside the Russian administration, as well as from insiders from Ukraine and even the Ukrainian armed forces. “In effect, we have created a kind of private intelligence agency based on Telegram.”

Telegram is run by a team of about 30 people. but it allowed 700 million Monthly active users will get a chance to see the war in Ukraine through the eyes of combatants, replacing war correspondents who have been censored or expelled from Russia. The channel publishes updates on fights, illustrating them with maps, as well as videos and images collected from social media users on the site or created by promotional departments.

The lack of oversight has complicated Telegram’s role as the most important social media platform in the conflict. Telegram stands in stark contrast to mainstream platforms like Facebook: it gives content creators free rein, deplatforming them only for illegal pornography, scams or spam, and calls for violence. This has made the platform a haven for extremists, conspiracy theorists and criminals, as well as for those seeking to escape the censorship of autocratic rulers.

On its website, Telegram boasts of its role in pro-democracy movements in places like Iran, Belarus and Hong Kong. But it has faced attempts from Brazil to block the platform. failing to hand over information about neo-nazis, And despite being considered a secure communication channel, it does not enable encryption by default. The company has also denied Suggestion He is cooperating with the Russian government on legal requests.

Telegram spokesperson Remy Vaughn says its guiding principles are information neutrality and equal treatment regardless of political views expressed by users. It says it is a secure platform specifically designed to avoid Russian surveillance. “Telegram has never shared any data with the FSB or any other authority in Russia,” Vaughan says.

But the Russian government – ​​or any other actor with sufficient resources – can also fuel narratives and create confusion and large-scale disinformation on Telegram. Russian propagandists such as Vladimir Solovyov and Russian state media have their own popular channels.

Many popular war channels are run by current and former security officials, says Eto Buziashvili, research associate at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), a NATO affiliate. “We can’t be sure what their agenda is and what game they are playing.”

Founder of Rybar Accepted For pro-Kremlin propaganda unleashed by the European Union last month, there was no hesitation in endorsing it. “I can say without hesitation that I have established contacts with some of the bodies that handle information coverage on behalf of the Ministry of Defense,” says Zvinchuk. “We exchange information, solve some problems, and play some tricks together to harm the enemy.”

Irina Pankratova, special correspondent for the Russian independent economic news outlet bell, says he is glad Telegram has provided an opportunity to talk about the war. But he also believes that people should be responsible for what they publish. so he decided to check rubberBreaking the anonymity of Zvinchuk.

“This anonymity of information did not exist to such an extent before the development of Telegram,” she says. “It gives rise to a complete irresponsibility to information, and that is very dangerous.”

In October last year, Western media rang the alarm On the possible preparation of a nuclear attack from Russia. A short video surfaced showing an armored vehicle and Polish analyst Konrad Muzyka identified it as belonging to the military department responsible for nuclear weapons. The source of the video was Rybar.

Military experts quickly dismissed the news. Although information on Telegram has to be handled carefully, some experts believe it could still be where news of the next big war could come from – even a nuclear attack. “Telegram will probably be the first where it comes from and it will come fast. We’ve seen it in the past,” Wilden says.

For now, the telegram remains a living document of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the Russian government’s relationship with the platform has been uneasy.

after abort Attempt Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor blocked Telegram in 2018 for refusing to hand over encryption keys to the Federal Security Service (FSB). ban lifted On stage in 2020. agency Confirmed that the app will not be blocked In October 2022. Instead, Russian officials have tried different strategies. interrogate both domestic And international News outlets have shown that Russia is working on software that can track Telegram users anonymously.

“The Kremlin is taking it seriously and trying to do something about it,” Pankratova says. “If the Kremlin fails to exercise some sort of control over Telegram, it could be blocked.”

And military bloggers have to self-censor even on platforms that allegedly avoid censorship. DFRLab’s Buziashvili says that although the military leadership was accused of mismanaging the conflict, criticism of Putin among military bloggers was “close to zero”. The Defense Ministry has attempted to open criminal cases against bloggers who were critical of Russia’s handling of the war, including Zvinchuk in December last year. The plan was abandoned, but Zvinchuk says he is well aware that there are some boundaries he should not cross.

For now, Telegram’s role in Russia reflects a long-standing paradox: Autocratic leaders fear the free exchange of information, but they still need somewhere to find it. “Perhaps the Kremlin understands that there should be some kind of forum. And at the same time, the Kremlin is trying to control it,” Pankratova says.

And Zvinchuk sees his work on Telegram as an advantage for Russia. Even if they have to go outside official media channels to report on the war, they feel that the government cannot ban all information about it. “You can’t do that, because it’s impossible to feed people dirt,” he says. “If they don’t read us, they’ll read the enemy.”