Ukraine bans Telegram use on state-issued gadgets
Ukraine has banned using the Telegram messaging platform on official gadgets issued to authorities and army personnel, in addition to defence sector and important infrastructure staff.
The nation’s highly effective Nationwide Safety and Defence Council (Rnbo) mentioned this was completed 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 army in each Ukraine and Russia.
In an announcement, the Rnbo mentioned the ban was agreed at a gathering of Ukraine’s high data safety officers, the army in addition to lawmakers.
It mentioned army intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov had introduced credible proof of Russian particular companies’ potential to entry private correspondence of Telegram customers, even their deleted messages.
“I’ve at all times supported and proceed to help freedom of speech, however the concern of Telegram will not be 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 using 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, pressured the ban solely utilized to official gadgets – not private smartphones.
He added that authorities officers and army personnel would be capable of proceed to take care of and replace their official Telegram pages.
Final 12 months, 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 provides end-to-end encryption – was co-founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov and his brother in 2013.
A 12 months 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 be a French nationwide, was positioned beneath 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 reasonable content material.
In July, Durov claimed that Telegram reached 950 million month-to-month energetic customers.