Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the blocking of traditional means of broadcasting Russian propaganda, the Kremlin has stepped up efforts to spread its narratives abroad using Telegram.
Points of attention
- Russian propaganda has found a loophole in traditional social media blocks and is thriving on Telegram, reaching Western audiences with conspiracy theories and Kremlin narratives.
- The proliferation of pro-Russian Telegram channels, including official channels of RT and Sputnik, poses a significant threat to information security in the West.
- Ukraine is considering banning Telegram due to its lack of dialogue with Ukrainian authorities and its affiliation with Russia, highlighting the need for measures to combat the spread of Russian propaganda.
- Various networks and channels on Telegram, including those affiliated with propagandists and far-right movements, actively contribute to spreading Russian narratives to millions of users worldwide.
- The spread of Russian propaganda through Telegram extends beyond Western audiences, with active dissemination in former Soviet countries, raising concerns about the influence of Kremlin narratives in the region.
Telegram is a conduit for Russian propaganda in the West
In conditions where the EU and the US banned the broadcasting and reproduction of Sputnik and RT content for "systematic information manipulation and disinformation", and YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram blocked their accounts, Russian pro-government media resources found a loophole that allowed them to even increase the reach of the audience for two years of full-scale war.
This is stated in the investigation of "New newspaper. Europe".
In the foreign segment of Telegram in 2024, almost 800 pro-Russian channels supporting Vladimir Putin, spreading Kremlin conspiracy theories and translating reports from the occupied Donbas into 30 languages were found.
A total of 15.7 million users read them (subscribers of different publics may overlap). The posts of these resources are viewed an average of 100 million times every day.
The official Telegram channels of RT and Sputnik also successfully bypass blocking, including by creating "mirrors". As a result, they managed to increase the number of channels from 35 to 54, and views — by 1.5 times.
In addition, at least six news networks with 85 channels broadcasting in dozens of languages were created in the messenger. The largest network — InfoDefense — is associated with propagandist Yuriy Podolyak, whose Russian-language channel has 2.8 million subscribers. It includes 45 channels in different languages: from Farsi to Slovenian. Another project closely related to InfoDefense is Node of Time.
Another foreign network — Surf Noise — was created by the Russian pro-war public "Rokot". The German project "Druzhba" is engaged in spreading the Kremlin's narratives, which translates messages from other propaganda resources into German, English and Bulgarian, and also organizes trips to Russia.
The network is associated with the Russian House in Berlin, the right-wing Alternative for Germany party and the pro-Russian journalist Alina Lipp. Another project belongs to them — HeilUkraine. These are channels in Russian, English, Serbian and Arabic, whose work is "dedicated to exposing and condemning Ukrainian neo-Nazism."
Local mass media and bloggers who are not formally affiliated with the Kremlin also help spread propaganda. Almost half of them signed up for Telegram after February 24, 2022.
Among them are followers of the far-right pro-Trumpist movement QAnon and covid-dissidents, such as the French blogger Silvano Trotta. They spread myths about American biolaboratories and child trafficking in Ukraine, and also talk about Putin's struggle with the "deep state." In total, more than 4 million users from all over the world subscribe to these channels, the network is especially active in the USA and Germany.
Also, Russian propaganda is spread in the countries of the former USSR, especially actively — in Moldova, Belarus and Armenia (in the latter there are 40 pro-Kremlin channels). In addition to the official mouthpieces of the Kremlin and networks of Telegram channels, Russian propaganda has more than 30 sites with similar goals (for example, the RuBaltic media resource).
Telegram may be banned in Ukraine
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Mykyta Poturaev, said that the leadership of the Telegram social network should contact and enter into a dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities, or the messenger will be banned like Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki in 2017.
There are no resources for Telegram regulation. And it won't be. And there is no possibility and there will not be, because it is not in our jurisdiction. This applies to any social networks. What will happen if we do not pay attention to these threats — there will be no Ukraine. Because we cannot talk about any information hygiene. Therefore, this messenger can be disabled in Ukraine, like other Russian social networks.
When you have 80% of the population using an unmoderated social network, and an unmoderated one in principle, whose leadership does not communicate with your state, according to which there is enough evidence that it remains affiliated with Russia, under the influence of the Russian special services, this is a big mistake, which, I repeat, will cost a lot
I see no other option but to not lose — not that the information war, but the war in general — except to write a fairly simple draft law, the essence of which will be that either networks or platforms establish a dialogue with the Ukrainian state, or the state simply closes them down .
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