The Dark Side Of Telegram

When protests erupted in Belarus in 2020 after a rigged presidential election, activists turned to Telegram to coordinate action, evading the watch of the authorities in Alyaksandr Lukashenka's repressive society and highlighting the good the messaging app could do.

But others with far less worthy causes -- from drug dealers and pedophiles to the Russian military fighting in Ukraine and its propagandists spreading disinformation on social media -- have also gravitated to Telegram, attracted to its encryption features and lack of moderation.

The spotlight has fallen on Telegram after the arrest in Paris on August 24 of Pavel Durov, its co-founder. According to French media reports, this was done at the request of a special unit within France's Interior Ministry in charge of investigating crimes against minors.

Durov has not been formally charged. A statement by the Paris prosecutor's office was due later on August 26.

Telegram said in a statement on August 25 that Durov, a 39-year-old billionaire who also holds a French passport, had nothing to hide, adding it was absurd to hold an owner responsible for the abuse of the messaging and social media platform.

What Is Telegram?

Telegram was founded by Durov and his brother in 2013 in the wake of the Russian government's crackdown after mass pro-democracy protests that rocked Moscow in 2011 and 2012.

One of its main advantages is the encryption of communications and the anonymity of users. In groups, the user's phone number is not visible.

Telegram has over 900 million users, Durov says, the majority of them in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics, and is the third largest communication platform worldwide after WhatsApp and Messenger.

Compared to other messaging platforms, Telegram is "less secure [and] more lax in terms of policy and detection of illegal content," said David Thiel, a Stanford University researcher, in comments to AP.

Tool Of The Oppressed

During the protests in Belarus in 2020, Telegram was key to organizing and sharing information. A Telegram channel, Nexta Live, which was posting live updates from the protests in Minsk and elsewhere, saw its number of followers jump to 2 million in the three days following the disputed August 9 poll. The creator of the channel, 22-year-old Stepan Putilo, was even declared a terrorist by the Belarusian government.

In Iran, Telegram has an estimated 40 million users and, in 2018, it was the main source of information as anti-government protests spread across the nation. Many Iranians used private Telegram groups to keep in touch with family and friends. They also subscribe to public channels to get news that is not available on state media. Iranian authorities eventually tried to block Telegram during the 2018 unrest.

Illicit Activities

Telegram's encryption feature has attracted those trading in images of child sexual abuse and stolen credit card numbers. A BBC investigation in 2019 found that secure messaging apps, including Telegram and Discord, had become popular following successful police operations against criminal markets operating on what is known as the dark web -- an Internet network that can only be accessed by using special tools.

The BBC investigation found evidence that pedophiles were using both Telegram and Discord to give people access to illegal material, and that links to Telegram groups were buried in the public comments section of YouTube videos.

Propaganda Tool

While hardly alone on social media, Telegram has proven to be a powerful tool in spreading disinformation.

Telegram is the largest platform for disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe, a 2023 investigative journalism report found, adding that German language channels play an "important role as an extreme opinion hub influencing the rest of Central and Eastern Europe."

That has run it afoul of authorities in Germany. In 2022, Germany issued fines of 5.1 million euros ($5 million) against the operators of Telegram for failing to comply with German law.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Telegram has increasingly been used by the Kremlin.

During the first months of the invasion, the Kremlin cracked down on Western social media platforms while "continuing to tolerate Telegram and utilize it for its own purposes," said a June report by the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), a disinformation analytical unit of the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

"Top channels experienced significant subscriber growth following the February 2022 invasion, but some of the most influential pro-war channels, such as Karaulny, Z SIL0VIKI, and WarGonzo, later experienced declines that have continued into the spring of 2024," the report said.

DFRLab also found Russian private military companies (PMCs) used Telegram, namely for fund-raising, recruiting, and information sharing. It noted that the Wagner mercenary group had at least 30 separate channels dedicated to regional recruitment offices. These, however, disappeared after Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor cracked down on Wagner channels during the June 2023 Wagner mutiny against Russia's senior military leadership.

Calls To Delete Telegram Content

Given its key role as a communication and propaganda tool, Russian bloggers, officials, and others are watching warily as the Durov case unfolds in France.

Baza, a Telegram channel affiliated with Russia's security apparatus, said on August 25 that Defense Ministry staff, prominent businessmen, and officers at several security agencies had also been ordered to wipe work-related messages from the application.

"For Z-bloggers, for Z-propaganda, these events are truly terrifying because all of their activities are centered on Telegram, all anonymous and semi-anonymous channels," explained Kirill Martynov, chief editor of the Latvian-based Novaya Gazeta Europe newspaper, using the term "Z" to describe pro-Russian bloggers and disinformation.

"And it's not just a news source, but it's really an operational tool of sorts, sort of like a modern-day walkie-talkie where people discuss with each other the details of their combat operations," Martynov told Current Time, the Russian-language TV and digital network run by RFE/RL.