Ukraine has banned the usage of the Telegram messaging platform on official gadgets issued to authorities and navy personnel, in addition to defence sector and significant infrastructure staff.
The nation’s highly effective Nationwide Safety and Defence Council (Rnbo) mentioned this was executed to “minimise” threats posed by Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Telegram is actively utilized by the enemy for cyber-attacks, the distribution of phishing and malicious software program, consumer geolocation and missile strike correction,” the Rnbo mentioned on Friday.
Telegram is broadly utilized by the federal government and the navy in each Ukraine and Russia.
In a press release, the Rnbo mentioned the ban was agreed at a gathering of Ukraine’s high info safety officers, the navy in addition to lawmakers.
It mentioned navy intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov had introduced credible proof of Russian particular providers’ means to entry private correspondence of Telegram customers, even their deleted messages.
“I’ve at all times supported and proceed to assist freedom of speech, however the difficulty of Telegram is just not a matter of freedom of speech, it’s a matter of nationwide safety,” Budanov was quoted as saying.
The Rnbo mentioned that these officers for whom the usage of Telegram was a part of their work duties can be exempt from the ban.
Individually, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Rnbo’s centre on countering disinformation, harassed the ban solely utilized to official gadgets – not private smartphones.
He added that authorities officers and navy personnel would be capable of proceed to keep up and replace their official Telegram pages.
Final yr, a USAID-Internews survey discovered that Telegram was the highest social platform in Ukraine for information consumption, with 72% of Ukrainians utilizing it.
Telegram – which offers end-to-end encryption – was co-founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov and his brother in 2013.
A yr later, Durov left Russia after refusing to adjust to authorities calls for to close down opposition communities on the platform.
Final month, Durov, who can also be a French nationwide, was positioned below formal investigation in France as a part of a probe into organised crime.
His case has fuelled a debate about freedom of speech, accountability and the way platforms average content material.
In July, Durov claimed that Telegram reached 950 million month-to-month energetic customers.
