When Pavel Durov, a Russian tech entrepreneur who founded the Telegram messenger app, was arrested in Paris on Aug. 24 on accusations of allowing terrorism to blossom on his platform, Ukraine watched it closely. He was charged by a Paris court on Aug. 28. In Ukraine, the charges against Durov

In Ukraine, the charges against Durov reinvigorated the public debate about the security of Telegram. Some activists and officials have long sounded an alarm about the fact that while the country is surviving a full-scale invasion by Russia, its most popular messenger app and source of news is a platform founded and run by a Russian.

The popularity of Telegram in Ukraine skyrocketed after the start of the invasion in 2022 – particularly due to its anonymous channels that mass-spread information to subscribers while preserving full anonymity of the publisher.

Telegram channels have become the most popular source of news about the war in Ukraine, according to a poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Center in late March.

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Moreover, while only 20% of Ukrainians used Telegram as a news source in 2021, this number surged to 72% in 2023, according to a USAID-Internews survey.

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