The Telegram messaging app has become a go-to platform since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite concerns over its data security and defenses against misinformation.
It has benefited from the gap left by Russia’s blocking of Facebook and Instagram, offering a similar platform for mass messaging.
The platform also provides one of the last windows on Russia, but also an open channel to the horrors facing an under-siege Ukraine.
Photo: AP
“Our main hope is connected with Telegram channel,” Galina Timchenko, director of the independent news site Meduza, which Russia has moved to block, told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Telegram data showed that the app has been downloaded more than 150 million times since the beginning of this year, with the official figure of 500 million active users dating back to January last year.
Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Telegram benefited from not using the same economic model of the big US platforms that generate revenue with data on their users.
Downloads jumped last year when a report from ProPublica investigative journalists claimed that Facebook teams were viewing messages sent via WhatsApp, contrary to the company’s assurances.
At the same time, Telegram has benefited from the image of its creators, brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, who left their home country of Russia in 2014.
Under pressure from the authorities, Nikolai Durov sold his stake in VK, which he had created, rather than hand over the personal data of opposition figures to the Kremlin.
“Telegram is now a very nice revenge story, and we all love a good revenge story,” said Enrique Dans, a professor specializing in information systems at the IE Business School in Madrid. “Will that be enough to make Telegram the world’s favorite messaging app? That’s a whole lot to say. The app still has a lot of things to demonstrate in areas such as security, encryption and business model.”
While the platform, which is run from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, claims to be secure, it does not encrypt messages by default, as does Meta-owned WhatsApp says it does.
“Telegram’s profile has grown enormously in recent weeks, and that has raised the stakes about the impact of misinformation on the platform,” said Jamie MacEwan, a media analyst at Enders Analysis. “Meta employs tens of thousands of moderators, and huge problems still slip through the net. It is unclear how much investment in moderation Telegram can support on its current funding model.”
Entirely free, Telegram started advertising last year, but with a reduced, highly regulated offering, guaranteeing that it would not use users’ private data for targeting.
In April last year, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported that the firm was preparing to go public next year, aiming for a valuation of up to US$50 billion.
“The value that Telegram could eventually reach if it goes public depends strongly on its monetization strategy, and Durov has not been very clear on that yet,” Dans said.
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