When the war began, one channel of communication rose above the rest. Millions of Ukrainians look to Telegram for safe escape routes, news from the front and scraps of information about their missing loved ones.
At the same time, Telegram was filled with war propaganda. The Russian government began to actively use it as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin. Also the president of Ukraine to Volodymyr Zelenskyi Telegram became an irreplaceable means of communication.
– The only channel that really matters in Russia’s war against Ukraine is Telegram, says a researcher at the National Defense University Jukka Viitaniemi.
According to Viitaniemi, Telegram is a superior channel if you want to get information quickly.
– What you have read today on Telegram, someone will translate and put on Twitter tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, says Viitaniemi.
– You can follow the events even better than at the venue itself.
According to Viitaniemi, the Ukrainian administration and army took over Telegram better than Russia in the first days of the war. Ukraine’s military intelligence and security service are actively gathering information on their Telegram channels. Ukraine also requested information on enemy sightings.
– Air raids sounded there, and the information about the launch locations of the missiles spread and continues to spread quickly, says Viitaniemi.
Along with authentic information, Telegram also publishes a large amount of false information and video material. It is also a platform for propaganda.
The use of Telegram exploded in Russia
When Russia shut down Facebook and Instagram last spring, Russian social media users moved even more to Telegram.
During the first month of the ban in February 2022, Telegram’s Russian-language user base grew by 23 percent and it was the most downloaded app in the country.
Russian Vedomosti (you switch to another service)– according to the economic magazine, Telegram’s share of Russian social media message traffic was 60–80 percent (you switch to another service) at the beginning of 2023, and the growth will continue. Currently, more than 42 million Russians use Telegram on average every day.
Even the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Chernyshenko wrote last March On the official Telegram channel of the Russian government (you will switch to another service)that “government agencies are recommended to create Telegram accounts”.
Now the sound has changed. Russia has banned all foreign-owned assets from government employees the use of messaging services (you switch to another service), including Telegram. I saw this despite the fact that Telegram was originally Russian.
– There is too much communication in Telegram that is unfavorable for the Kremlin, says Viitaniemi.
Russia is also increasingly afraid that information from the country’s armed forces and intelligence services will be leaked to Western countries and Ukraine.
How does Telegram work?
Telegram is a combination of social media and messaging app. There you can follow channels from different parties or join groups. In groups, participants can message each other in the same way as on Twitter, but only group members are the conversationalists. The group can have up to 200,000 members.
– Telegram is like a combination of Twitter, Whatsapp and Signal, sums up Viitaniemi.
In addition to personal and group chats, in Telegram, like Twitter, you can communicate publicly on your own channels. These messages are visible to channel subscribers. For example, Topor Live, one of the most subscribed Telegram channels in Russia, works as a news platform.
Telegram channels can also be managed anonymously, which makes it difficult for the authorities to identify the authors.
– Telegram is also suitable for civic movements, because you can set up a group there and act anonymously, says Viitaniemi.
For example, the popular uprising in Belarus was led with the help of Telegram, because the official wireless connections were broken at the time. In addition, Telegram is used by both extremist Islamists and democracy activists (you switch to another service) in Iran and Hong Kong, among others.
Organizing protests is easy because the origin of a reshared message cannot be traced. It is also difficult to find different groups and channels, because those who want to operate in secret are private.
In Telegram, you can communicate in any language you want, but the majority of its users live in the countries of the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. Information about the war in Ukraine can best be found on Ukrainian- and Russian-language channels.
NATO membership, border fence and Hornets
We found out what is being said about Finland on Telegram’s Russian-language channels and conversations. In this article, we will highlight examples of the most recent discussions, mainly from March.
The Russian channel Voyennoye obozreniye (Military review in Finnish) reporting on politics and war reported at the beginning of March 2023 how Finland “will go to war against Russia”. Channel brought up (you switch to another service) points president Sauli Niinistön about the speech in the United States, such as that “the war in Ukraine made the Finnish leadership start the process of joining NATO”.
The same channel reports on the anti-NATO demonstration in Finland. The article was titled as follows: STOP NATO! Finns oppose the war. Demonstration (you switch to another service) was actually very small.
Finland’s possible NATO membership Comment in Telegram (you will switch to another service) also the chairman of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the ruling party belonging to United Russia Alexei Pushkov already last summer.
“Finland joining the union will lead to increasing tension in the Baltic Sea region and north of it. Above all, about whether NATO bases or structures will appear on the territory of Finland”, wrote Puškov Telegram-on its channel (you switch to another service) in June 2022.
Also the Prime Minister Sanna Marini recent comments about the hornets possibly being given to Ukraine quickly ended up with a Russian Topor Live (you switch to another service) – news channel.
The Voyennyj obozrevatel channel (Sotakolumnisti in Finnish) on the other hand tell (you switch to another service)i the very next day, that according to Marin’s “comrades in arms”, he had not discussed giving the Hornets with anyone.
Finland’s intention to build a fence on the border with Russia has also been featured in Telegram. News channel Voyennoye obozreniye writes (you go to another service)how in Finland they started to build a fence on the Russian border “so that illegal border crossing becomes more difficult”.
News channel Rossija (you switch to another service) on the other hand, recalled the past week’s history and told how the Finns surrendered to the Russian troops in 1940.
All in all, Finland is featured only a little on Telegram’s Russian channels. Small events that are connected to either NATO or Russia often come to the fore.
News channel Voyennoye obozreniye (you switch to another service) laughed 13.3. to the increase in the price of electricity in Finland and links to ‘s news with smileys: “Joined NATO! ??? The Finns had to pay more than five billion euros because of last fall’s energy crisis”.
What thoughts does the article about the use of Telegram evoke in you? You can discuss the topic on 18.3. until 23:00.