Since Expanded War in Ukraine Began, Telegram has Become Most Widely Used Social Media Platform in Russia, Logunova Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 12 – Until Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine, Telegram channels or “telega” as they are known in Russia lagged far behind other social media platforms in that country. But a combination of restrictions or bans on the latter and growing interest in news have pushed Telegram to the top, Olga Logunova says.

            The Russian specialist on media at King’s College London says that Kremlin bans and restrictions helped Telegram grow but that interest in unrestricted news has played if anything a greater role, given Telegram’s growth after key events sparked greater interest among Russian media consumers (ridl.io/explaining-the-rise-of-telegram/).

            The Putin regime has responded by flooding Telegram with bots, something that increases suspicions about the platform’s reliability; and increasingly Russians are concerned about the lack of end-to-end encryption on this channel. Unless those are somehow addressed, Telegram’s future may be less successful than its recent past.

            In her Riddle portal article, versions of which are available in English as well as Riussian, Logunova provides extensive statistical data in support of her conclusions.