Budanov noted that with the help of Telegram it is possible to influence people located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, said that the Telegram messenger, for which they plan to introduce restrictions, is clearly a problem from the point of view of national security, but at the same time it can be used in favor of Ukraine.
He believes that with the help of Telegram it is possible to influence people located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, writes the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.
“The most interesting thing is Telegram, everyone reads it. In many ways it has a destructive effect here inside, but also thanks to it you can convey something to people in the occupied territories. This is something that more or less somehow works,” Budanov said.
In his opinion, the messenger also carries serious dangers.
“Telegram, from the point of view of national security, is definitely a problem. This must be understood. In addition, I am absolutely against the suppression of freedom of speech. But this is too much. That is, with us, any person can make a channel, start writing on it whatever he wants, and when they start doing something, they hide behind the fact that this is freedom of the media. But this is not freedom of the media, it is called a little differently,” he explained.
Talks about restricting Telegram in Ukraine – details
On Monday, March 25, bill No. 11115 was registered in the Verkhovna Rada to regulate the activities of information sharing platforms through which mass information is distributed, in particular Telegram. The explanatory note states that some platforms for sharing information have a multi-million audience in Ukraine.
The Telegram regulation bill does not apply to channel owners. This was stated by Nikolai Knyazhitsky, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy.
