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according to reports from the bbc and reuters, on september 20 local time, the national security and defense council of ukraine issued a statement saying that due to concerns that russia would use the social media platform telegram to conduct intelligence and hostile activities, ukraine has decided to ban ukrainian government employees, military personnel, defense departments and critical infrastructure personnel from using telegram on officially issued devices.

ukraine's national security and defense council claimed the move was intended to "minimize" the threat posed by russia.

the russian side has not responded to this statement. telegram said in a statement that the platform "has never provided any information or data to any country, including russia."

reuters

ukraine's latest telegram ban applies only to officially issued devices and not to personal phones.

in addition, people who use telegram for official business will be exempt from the ban, and ukrainian government employees and military personnel will be able to continue to maintain and update their official telegram pages.

the ban was reached at a meeting on thursday involving ukraine's top information security officials, the military and lawmakers, ukraine's national security and defense council said in a statement.

ukrainian president zelensky's official telegram account

ukraine claimed that the enemy used telegram to carry out "cyber attacks, phishing, spreading malware, locating users and correcting missile attacks, etc.", and that the head of the ukrainian ministry of defense's main intelligence directorate submitted evidence that russian intelligence agencies have the ability to "obtain" the content of communications of social media telegram users (including information deleted by users).

it is worth mentioning that on august 27, dmitry peskov, the press secretary of the russian president and the spokesman of the kremlin, said that the russian presidential office would not use any instant messaging software, including telegram, for official business. "from the perspective of information security, no instant messaging tool is reliable enough - telegram is no exception."

telegram is famous for its special encryption method, which claims to ensure that users' chat messages cannot be intercepted or cracked. the platform was founded by russian entrepreneur pavel durov and his brother in st. petersburg, russia in 2013. durov left russia in 2014, moved to the uae in 2017 and moved the headquarters of telegram to dubai. after the outbreak of the russian-ukrainian conflict in 2022, both russia and ukraine used telegram as the main channel for information release.

in addition to chatting, russian and ukrainian users are also accustomed to getting news from the platform. last year, a survey conducted by the united states agency for international development (usaid) and the non-profit organization internews found that telegram is the largest social platform for news consumption in ukraine, with 72% of ukrainians using the platform.

ukrainian president zelensky uses telegram to publish news

in july this year, durov said that the number of monthly active users of the telegram platform reached 950 million. last month, durov was arrested in paris, france, and was accused by the paris prosecutor of more than a dozen crimes and violations, including conspiracy to participate in the dissemination of child pornography, drug smuggling, and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. durov has been granted bail with a bail of 5 million euros. his case has triggered a discussion about freedom of speech, accountability, and how platforms regulate content.

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