Ukrainian intelligence admitted that the Russian messenger included a number of threats to the security of our country.
Ukrainian intelligence said today that Telegram (Russian multi-platform instant messenger) contains several threats to national security, and Ukraine needs to find options to solve this problem. Users on social networks immediately raised a wave of fear, saying that the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate decided to “clean up” the Ukrainian segment of the messenger. Whether this is true or not is beyond the story.
Military threat
Authorities began criticizing Telegram last fall. In mid-November, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexey Danilov said he considered the messenger “dangerous and vulnerable.” According to him, the main threat to the activities of Telegram channels is the anonymity of their owners and the absence of any responsibility for the dissemination of unverified or specially fake information.
Today, GUR representative Andrei Yusov confirmed Danilov’s words and said that the threats from Telegram were “real.”
“The question is about the platform itself. It includes a number of threats to information, and not only information, security of our country. Yes, this question needs to be answered, and I think it will definitely happen, Yusov said.
As the military man said, Ukraine is now building communication with the Telegram administration to work according to clear rules: both in accordance with Ukrainian law and in accordance with international standards.
“For some people, it’s better to solve it, for others it’s more difficult. This is the most difficult thing to come out of Telegram. It’s continuous work, multi-level: both in the territory of the platform itself by creating content that will destroy the myths , explain and cover the target audience, and work in terms of normalizing the activities of these sites. All these steps are being taken, but there is still a lot of work,” added of the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate.
Clarification from GUR
Ukrainians perceived Yusov’s statement as a desire to close the messenger on the territory of our country.
It should be noted that, according to a KIIS survey, Telegram became the main source of information for Ukrainians during the mass invasion (44% of citizens receive information from Telegram channels and 43% from television ).
Therefore, later Yusov responded to the wave of “zrada”, which began to gain momentum in social networks. In a comment on the Telegram channel Trukha.Ukraine, Yusov added that the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Ministry of Defense had no complaints about the activities of the media on the messenger. His words refer to “channels that value their reputation and authority among readers.” Although there is a problem with the spread of fakes and materials that are dangerous to the integrity of the country.
“We are mainly talking about the dumps of propagandists from the Russian Federation. Therefore, the Main Director of Intelligence believes that Telegram itself should be interested in translating its work into legal channels, at least Ukraine,” he explained.
What changes await Telegram
Since September last year, the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, together with related departments, began to work on the issue of regulating the work of Telegram in Ukraine.
Then the National Security and Defense Council presented the main requirements for the activities of the platform channels: deanonymization (official registration as a media outlet) and compliance with generally accepted journalistic standards in their work.
Today, the head of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, Olga Gerasimyuk, said that the issue of regulating Telegram has already been discussed at the level of the Verkhovna Rada.
“To my joy, I have already heard the opinions about it from our representatives. Last week I heard from some deputies the opinion that we need to take serious steps. It is another matter that the proposals law needs to be carefully considered, but the fact that it needs to be fixed, this is a fact,” said Gerasimyuk.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.