how the Telegram app took center stage on the digital front

“Attack Russian propagandists on their turf”

From the first days of the conflict, the Ukrainian Kyrylo Kuznetsov, a student in France, embarked on a counter-offensive, like a volunteer fighter. He first launched the French version of Ukraine NOW, a Ukrainian news channel on Covid converted into a counter-propaganda tool. Contacted by the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, he then created a much more strategic Russian version.

The goal was “to attack Russian propagandists on their own ground”, he says, publishing factual elements to counter their speeches. To achieve this, the team notably had an iconographic base provided by the ministry. “We were free to choose what we wanted to publishpromises Kyrylo Kuznetsov, even if the government could send this or that message on occasion.”

A few months later, the authorities resumed these voluntary initiatives, launching new channels managed by their own teams. “Many Ukrainian Telegram channels are more or less directly linked to the government”observes Valentyna Dymytrova, researcher in information and communication sciences at Lyon-3 University. “The Ukrainian media landscape presents itself as a united and unique field against the invader”, in a national war effort.

A reservoir of sensitive data

The authorities are particularly vigilant about the dissemination of images or data that could provide information to the Russian armed forces. Telegram, in fact, is a gold mine for the intelligence services, which spy on the publications in order to exploit any data for military purposes. With the app’s success, however, collecting this information is no longer restricted to governments. Private players have also gotten involved.

The Rybar (“Fisherman”) channel, extremely popular in Russia, is an example of this. Founded by a former employee of the press service of the Ministry of Defense, according to the media The Bell (in Russian), it employs about ten people. His main highlights? Having unearthed and published, on several occasions, the GPS coordinates of Ukrainian troops. Its authors brag on Telegram (in Russian) for having thus helped the Russian army to launch targeted strikes. The real weight of such “nudges” on the pitch is unknown. But “these initiatives are sufficiently noticed by the army to have consequences in the physical space”observes Kevin Limonier, researcher at the French Institute of Geopolitics.

With his one million subscribers, compared to 30,000 before the war, Rybar embodies the rise to power of “mibloggers”, these self-proclaimed experts in military strategy. In total, around fifteen specialized Telegram channels have experienced just as dazzling progress, and no longer hesitate to curb the decisions of the Russian general staff. A nuisance power for the Kremlin, which must now deal with these influential patriots.

A tool for influence operations

Telegram also offers a convenient tool for spreading self-indulgent stories about the role of the Russian military. Last November, the Ukrainian media Texty.org (in English) was able to identify 120 newly created channels in occupied cities. Practical information rubbed shoulders with propaganda, in order to attract as many subscribers as possible. “The objective was to prepare and legitimize the occupation, replacing the Ukrainian media”explains Youliia Doukatch, co-author of the Texty survey. “These channels also provided information to Russian media and bloggers” on these areas.

Several were removed soon after the territories were liberated by Ukraine. This attests to the opportunistic nature of these tools, tailor-made for the occupying forces. Wider, “Telegram is helping to establish a new media landscape consisting of a large number of small channels”, comments Roman Horbyk, researcher in media and communication at the University of Södertörn (Sweden).

“Russian propaganda institutions mobilize such channels to sow conspiracy theories and false information, in order to normalize them.”

Roman Horby, researcher at the University of Södertörn (Sweden)

at franceinfo

The Telegram channel of an established media can thus rub shoulders with a conspiratorial channel, on an equal footing. And this disinformation war is an integral part of the conflict. The Ukrainian government thus gave “instructions for the population to use Telegram, both to find sources of information and to distinguish pro-Ukrainian from pro-Russian sources”, explains Valentyna Dymytrova. Last summer kyiv published a list (in English) of a hundred channels accused of being linked to the Kremlin and of imitating Ukrainian publications.

The war arises live in the intimacy

Ukraine, however, is hooked. Some 65% of social media users check the app for news, according to a survey by the Opora institute (in Ukrainian). “This application has the specificity of combining personal communications and news consumption on a single platform, which promotes the eventual use of this information”says researcher Roman Horbyk.

The erasing of the border between private and public digital spaces increases the commitment to the conflict, leading to concrete civil actions (fundraising, support operations, etc.). “The distance between the reader and the conflict is greatly reduced by the fact that there are thousands of channels that will film the war in its smallest details”analyzes Kevin Limonier.

If conflicts generate “digital traces since the advent of social networks” (Syria, Arab Spring, etc.), the magnitude of the phenomenon and the multiplicity of online sources have made this invasion the “first high-intensity ‘open source’ war”.

“It’s a revolution similar to what we saw with the eruption of live war TV coverage.”

Kevin Limonier, lecturer at the French Institute of Geopolitics

at franceinfo

The almost total absence of moderation also makes it possible to publicize the horrors of war more widely than on other social networks. At the beginning of February, the mayor of Kramatorsk, Oleksandr Honcharenkohad as well, on Facebook (in Ukrainian), accused the Californian firm of having deleted one of his publications, where he denounced a bombardment on a cemetery. “Thousands of Ukrainians have been suspended, some permanently, for condemning the invasion or reporting on the events,” summarizes Roman Horbyk.

“Russian social networks are now totally controlled and under regulated power control”recalls Kevin Limonier, “and Western social networks (Twitter, Facebook…) are blocked or slowed down. Telegram is one of the few cracks in digital freedom”, because it has the reputation of being an “encrypted” application – which is not the case by default. The application has fewer users than WhatsApp (48.8 million against 76) in Russia, but their number is growing five times faster.

Debatable security

The war, however, revived questions about the security of Telegram, created by Pavel Dourov and his brother Nikolai. Admittedly, the Russian government had tried in vain to block the application, in 2018, after it failed to obtain data from the creators. “Relations are therefore ambiguous with the Russian authoritiespoints out Kevin Limonier, but it is also probable that they are not as execrable as they are made out to be.” Last March, on Telegram (in Russian), the Russian government had recommended that official agencies create accounts on this application and on VKontakte, the national Facebook, also created by Pavel Dourov.

“The Belarusian state, through its secret services and Lukashenko’s political police, used Telegram to arrest, even recently, participants in the 2020 protests”, emphasizes Roman Horbyk. And in early February, the American media Wired (in English) also wrote that Russian opponents were arrested after leaving traces on Telegram.

Pavel Dourov had tried to reassure users, after the start of the war, by recalling on his channel (in English) that his maternal family was of Ukrainian descent, and calling the war a personal tragedy. “The fact remains that Telegram has many security problems and is used by secret services around the world”, comments Roman Horbyk. On the front, the Ukrainian soldiers therefore prefer the American Signal or the Swiss Threema, to avoid unpleasant surprises, even virtual ones.