![]() ![]() Originally marketed as a secure messaging app, Telegram is functionally three distinct services in one. “This is a company that is explicitly designed to be unaccountable, and whether you think that’s good or bad is in the eye of the beholder,” Maréchal said. ![]() “Durov is a pretty old-school cyber libertarian, who believes that encryption will set us free, and that computers and electronic communication transcend borders and transcend government oppression and are the pathway toward individual freedom,” she said. ![]() Since its launch, Telegram has marketed itself as a bastion of free speech, a message that has resonated with users who live in countries with heavy online censorship, but it has also drawn extremist organizations ranging from the Islamic State terrorist group to Jan. Telegram has been popular for years in Eastern Europe and Russia, and last year reached a landmark 1 billion downloads. The app’s popularity in the region and its flexibility - it’s both a messaging app and a way to broadcast messages to an audience - have made it a crucial tool amid an ongoing battle to win the public information war against Russia. In addition to politicians, the SBU is just one of the many official Ukrainian government channels to rely on Telegram in recent weeks as a way to disseminate information. Its feed is full of videos of despondent, apologetic and sometimes bloodied Russians who are allegedly prisoners of war, which some experts have argued violates the Geneva Conventions. Taking advantage of the fact that Telegram, unlike Facebook and Twitter, is almost entirely unmoderated, it publishes plenty of its own. But SBU’s Telegram channel doesn’t just counter Russian propaganda. ![]()
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