WASHINGTON, DC — Chat platforms like
WhatsApp and
Telegram have avoided being blocked by Russia — unlike some of the
world’s biggest social networks — in a tenuous tolerance that experts warn
could end suddenly.
اضافة اعلان
Years of tension between
Moscow and US-based
Facebook and Twitter erupted into a confrontation after the invasion of
Ukraine, with the platforms targeting state-tied media and then finding
themselves restricted in Russia.
YouTube, which has barred channels linked to Russian
state media globally, was on Friday also facing a direct threat of being
blocked after Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, accused the site’s owner
Google of being “anti-Russian.”
Messaging apps, however, have gotten a pass so far
in part because Meta-owned WhatsApp is less suited for mass communication,
while Telegram’s ability to blast information to large groups has made it
useful both for independent media and the Kremlin.
“I think it’s unlikely Russia will ban Telegram
because they are so short on platforms where they can operate,” said Sergey
Sanovich, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, who noted that
authorities in 2020 aborted efforts to block the service.
Telegram, criticized as having a lax content
policing policy, offers a forum for Russian authorities to promote narratives
friendly to their internationally condemned war.
Russia still operates accounts on platforms like
Facebook, despite blocking the service at home, but this week the Silicon
Valley giant took down posts from Moscow’s pages that contained misinformation
about its deadly offensive.
Telegram has become an essential exchange for news
on the war, with its growth accelerating after the
Kremlin’s latest crackdown
on independent media and the lock-out of apps like Facebook and Instagram.
An average of 2.5 million new users joined Telegram
daily in the last three weeks, the firm said, about a 25 percent jump from the
weeks prior.
‘Declaring war on YouTube’
But experts highlighted a
risk to Telegram and its users due to a lack of default, end-to-end encryption
that potentially leaves the company susceptible to government pressure to turn over
information.
Alp Toker, director of web monitoring group
NetBlocks, noted WhatsApp has put in place fire stops that offer insulation
against that sort of pressure.
“By improving their security and adopting end-to-end
encryption technology, they have essentially protected their own platform from
legal risk and potential demands for content access requests,” Toker added.
WhatsApp’s use for one-on-one or group chats make it
less of a target for Russian authorities for now, but that could change if it became
known as a key platform for protests against the war.
“Primarily, Roskomnadzor has been very concerned
about channels and news and ways of disseminating information to large numbers
of people, which WhatsApp and such are less good for,” said Eva Galperin,
director of cybersecurity at
Electronic Frontier Foundation.
But Toker noted that the question hasn’t reached a
critical point yet for authorities, partly because it was social media
platforms, many of them now blocked that had played a key role in organizing.
“As those (platforms) disappear, the dynamics could
change and messaging apps could become the next target,” he added.
WhatsApp was one of the most popular apps in Russia
in 2021, with some 67 million users or about 65 percent of internet users in
the country — far ahead of TikTok, Russian social media platform VK, and even
Telegram, according to data from eMarketer.
But
YouTube, with 76 million viewers in 2021, drew
more Russians than any of the above platforms, the data showed.
Its popularity was due in part to the access it
offers to entertainment for everyday Russians, who in turn provided an audience
for politicians and the government seeking their attention.
Sanovich, the
Princeton researcher, said the platform had simply gotten on the wrong side of
authorities.
“They have a hard time controlling YouTube in terms
of censorship and YouTube’s recent moves made it less valuable as a venue for
foreign propaganda,” he noted.
The lack of a sufficiently high-quality homegrown
alternative has also been a complicating factor for the government in deciding
what to do with YouTube.
Toker, the NetBlocks director, cautioned that the
blocking of YouTube would mean confronting Google, with its suite of services
like Gmail.
“Declaring war on YouTube effectively means
declaring war on the rest of the company,” he noted. “Google is a major force
in business and a significant connection to the outside world.”
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