Kremlin throttles Messenger Telegram | FAZ | EUROtoday

The media regulator Roskomnadzor throttled the information streams of the messenger Telegram throughout Russia final week in an try and drive residents into the state-controlled app referred to as “VK Max”. More than 90 million Telegram customers have been affected. Founded in 2013 by brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the service has develop into crucial communications platform in Russia inside a decade. The founders’ promise that Telegram could be secure from authorities intervention contributed to this from the beginning. In parallel with the conflict waged by Russia in opposition to Ukraine since 2014, Telegram turned the central digital hinge that interlinks non-public and public communication.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov informs residents of the area close to the Ukrainian border through Telegram about hostilities by the Ukrainian armed forces. The chief propagandist of the Russian conflict of aggression, Vladimir Solovyov, retains his 1.2 million followers up to date each minute on Telegram in regards to the “successes” of the Russian armed forces in destroying Ukrainian heating and transport infrastructure. Russian soldier Anatoly Dremov studies from the conflict zone within the occupied territories in jap Ukraine to gather donations for reconnaissance drones for his Cossack unit. On Telegram he receives instant suggestions from his over 20,000 followers within the type of dozens of hearts, flames and different smileys. After every fundraising occasion, Dremow paperwork the arrival of the Chinese-made drones with a brief movie.

Just a few hours after the federal government started throttling Telegram, Russian troopers protested as a result of they use the platform to coordinate their logistics on the entrance. The Kremlin ideologue Alexander Dyukov instantly complained: “I’m sending a manuscript for typesetting and then immediately send a hate message to Roskomnadzor. Telegram runs so slowly that it takes 15 minutes to send 669 kilobytes.” The readers’ reactions are clear: 315 customers ship a teary smiley, 242 agree one hundred pc, 119 are offended. Governor Gladkov informs on Telegram in a specifically recorded video with a contact of unhappiness that it’s time to swap to the state platform VK Max. Experts consider that the media regulator’s choice is a part of the state’s technique to drive all residents to change to the Max model of Facebook’s VKontakte copy.

This growth is the following chapter in a digital platform cleaning soap opera, as VKontakte was the undertaking with which the Durow brothers celebrated their first main success. After strain from the home secret service FSB elevated to grant entry to consumer knowledge, they bought their platform shares and used the capital to discovered Telegram as a technological response to the management makes an attempt. The new complete VKontakte model Max was developed by a government-related consortium to bundle non-public communication and all interplay with authorities businesses in a digital app with an actual title requirement. It has been pre-installed on all new smartphones delivered in Russia since September 2025. Use of the providers is barely potential after registration with passport knowledge. VKontakte Max permits state surveillance on a degree like that in China.

VKontakte Max interlinks quite a lot of state providers: digital automotive registration, questions on utility billing for residences, appointments with native administrations, communication with lecturers and documentation of grades in school, a Russian different to the Paypal cost service, digital affected person data and far more. Max is an try to mix all these state-controlled processes with a digital messenger that residents may use privately. The utility is already getting used systematically within the occupied territories in jap Ukraine to manage the inhabitants.

Throttling Telegram can also be an admission that the Russian state doesn’t have the technical capabilities to dam the messenger utterly. As early as 2018, Roskomnadzor tried to drive Telegram to surrender by blocking tens of millions of IP addresses. This brought about vital financial harm as a result of the providers of quite a few firms have been additionally affected by the ban. Since Telegram continues to perform as a relay station for personal and public communications, Governor Gladkov continues to put up his messages to Belgorod residents even after the throttling. The Solovyov propaganda machine continues to run on the platform. The ideologue Dyukov is spreading pretend information on his channel, in keeping with which Belarusian President Lukashenko has spoken out in opposition to the blocking of digital providers.

A big a part of non-public communication in Russia nonetheless takes place through the Durow app. Millions of residents are used to persevering with to make use of Telegram, simply as they’ve been utilizing providers from US firms akin to Instagram or YouTube which were blocked since 2022. All it’s a must to do is set up a VPN tunnel. In the case of YouTube, the variety of day by day customers halved from over 50 to round 25 million inside three years. The different half now makes use of the RuTube or VK Video platforms supported by the Russian state. Any additional restrictions reinforce the emergence of an Internet managed by the Russian state and the makes an attempt of a part of the inhabitants to avoid it out of behavior and self-protection.

The throttling of Telegram exhibits that the regime goals for complete digital management of all residents, however doesn’t but have the technical means to realize this objective with out arousing social resistance. It is presently nonetheless potential for the quite a few Russian-language media tasks that function from overseas to move their content material to Russia through Telegram, YouTube and different platforms. The change in Telegram consumer numbers within the coming months will present details about how lengthy it will proceed to work.

The writer leads a Hans Böckler junior analysis group on the historical past of digital conflict publics on the Open University in Hagen.