Author: Robert Břešťan
More than 900 million people worldwide use the Telegram app and social network. Contributing to its growing popularity and ubiquity is its reputation as a thoroughly encrypted product whose creators do not cooperate with law enforcement. This is one of the reasons why it is used, for example, by activists in repressive regimes on the one hand, and by Islamic State terrorists or various criminal groups on the other.
Jana Murínová, the Czech prosecutor overseeing the investigation into last December’s deadly shooting at Prague’s Charles University, recently complained that they cannot get the information they want from Telegram’s operators: “We know that the operator of this platform does not provide information, does not cooperate with law enforcement authorities.”
Because – or so the official version of the story goes – the creators and founders of Telegram, Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, refused to cooperate with the Russian authorities, the company also physically moved first to Berlin and then to Dubai. It is, however, registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Both men are also behind the creation of the well-known and popular social network VK (VKontakte) in Russia. But in 2014, Pavel Durov quit as CEO, reportedly after disputes with Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications (Roskomnadzor). Thanks to this, his other product, Telegram, gained a reputation as an alternative, reliable, safe and secure communication tool.
Hire your terrorist
While telegram is a long forgotten means of communication, Telegram as an app, platform and social network has only flourished since its inception in 2013. In March this year, the Financial Times reported that the number of Telegram users globally had surpassed 900 million.
Telegram remains generous to users. It functions as a communication platform and a social network. It allows encrypted communication, chats and calls, publishing posts, creating groups of up to 200,000 members. In so-called channels, where communication is one-way, the number of subscribers is not limited in any way. And channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers are no exception.
Hence, there is a very diverse mix of content on Telegram. On the one hand, it is known that it is used by, for example, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or the head of France Emmanuel Macron, but on the other hand, it is also an eldorado of pro-Russian propaganda and Telegram is used by many pro-Russian bloggers and channels spreading disinformation about, among other things, Russian aggression in Ukraine.
But equally, various activists, political opposition in authoritarian regimes are turning to Telegram as a platform for secure mass communication. But also various criminal groups and terrorists.
For example, it was Telegram that recruited the Colombian who was detained by Czech police in early June for an arson attack at a Prague bus depot.
“The fact that the trail of this attack leads to Russia is not just a supposition, of course, but there is intelligence behind it. Although – in general terms – the attacker himself may not even know in similar cases that he was recruited by the Russian side,” Michal Koudelka, director of the Czech counterintelligence agency BIS, told HlídacíPes.org.
On Telegram, it is not a problem to find and hire criminals in Russian-speaking communities who will carry out, for example, a physical attack on a specific person anywhere in the world for an appropriate amount of money.
How to do magic with numbers
While news viewership is generally declining across all media, social networks and platforms such as Telegram are growing in popularity – not only as a source of entertainment, a means of communication, but also as a provider of news of varying quality and credibility.
The Telegram doesn’t address that. After all, according to its founder Pavel Durov, “conspiracy theories only get stronger every time their content is removed by moderators”.
The approach of some governments is also ambivalent. Telegram has been temporarily or permanently blocked in Iran, Brazil and Pakistan. The Russian government blocked it for several years, but lifted the ban in 2020. This April, Apple removed Telegram from its App Store in China (Signal and WhatsAp did the same).
The question remains who funds Telegram and how. The Durov brothers are undoubtedly wealthy men, dollar billionaires, thanks to the success of the VKontakte social network, but as the Russian newspaper Pravda pointed out, Telegram has not yet made any profit during its existence.
An indication that Telegram does not want to be monitored and controlled is the fact that it claims to the European authorities that the number of its users in the EU is only 42 million. Which plays a significant role. In order for social networks and internet platforms to be covered by the new European rules under the Digital Services Act, the number of users must exceed 45 million.
Some communication experts openly consider this as a purposeful magic with numbers. “It’s remarkable that Telegram is teetering on that line. I don’t consider it a coincidence. Telegram plays a big role in the alternative scene, in spreading conspiracies and misinformation, as well as in activating people, calling them to events and so on. It brings together many groups that are gradually being pushed out of other platforms like WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook,” Carlos Hernandez-Echevarria, associate professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University and director of the Spanish fact-checking site Maldita.es, said at a recent media conference at the International Press Institute in Sarajevo, adding:
“Some channels in Spain alone have as many as 500,000 subscribers, and that makes Telegram a full-fledged media outlet in its own way, with a large reach. It is clearly not a tool for private communication, but a public network that activates large groups of people and its management should be subject to higher rules and requirements.”
