The administration of the Telegram messaging network has disabled several official bots that opposed Russia’s military action against Ukraine, according to a statement released on Monday by the Ukrainian military spy agency GUR.
“Today, the management of the Telegram platform unreasonably blocked a number of official bots that opposed Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, including the main Intelligence bot,” GUR stated in a Telegram post.
“Despite the blocking of our bot – your personal data is safe.”
A request for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by Telegram’s press office.
A bot is a software program that is designed to carry out specific activities and may operate independently by following instructions. It can gather content or imitate human conversation, among other things.
The founder of one of the most widely used social media platforms, the messaging app Telegram, is Pavel Durov, a Russian-born man who fled Russia in 2014 after defying orders to close down opposition communities on a social media company he had sold.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has developed into a useful tool for governments as well as a preferred location for posting and gaining access to uncensored news about the conflict.
In both Russia and Ukraine, practically all of the main media, governmental organizations, and public figures run Telegram content channels.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine records his daily video speeches on the app, and his armed forces report on events on the front lines and issue alerts of impending air raids. As the opposition in Russia organizes a support rally, the Kremlin posts information on President Vladimir Putin’s whereabouts on Telegram.
