Most Ukrainians oppose blocking Telegram, favor stronger law enforcement oversight
Over 75% of Ukrainians do not support blocking the Telegram messenger in Ukraine (Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)
More than three-quarters of Ukrainians oppose a complete ban on the Telegram messenger in Ukraine, while a majority support greater oversight by law enforcement, according to a survey by the Rating Group think tank released on March 3.
According to the study, 76% of respondents are against a full ban on Telegram in Ukraine. At the same time, 16% of Ukrainians support such an idea.
A majority of respondents (52%) support strengthening law enforcement oversight of the messenger, while 41% of Ukrainians are against it.
At the same time, 28% of respondents said Telegram has a negative impact on national security.
Most respondents (72%) believe the messenger has no effect on their personal security. Only 8% think using Telegram negatively affects their security, while 15% believe it has a positive effect.
On Feb. 28, Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov said that during the war Telegram should be “regulated,” requiring channel owners to register them.
Back in 2024, Budanov stressed the need to “de-anonymize” anonymous Telegram channels so their authors feel accountable. He also noted that closing Telegram, as happened with other Russian social networks (for example, Odnoklassniki and VKontakte), is technically difficult but not impossible.
After a terrorist attack in Lviv in which the suspect was recruited via Telegram, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Vereshchuk called for restrictions on the messenger in Ukraine.
Later, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Deputy Head of Ukraine’s SBU Security Service Ivan Rudnytskyi spoke in favor of regulating Telegram’s operations to minimize Russia’s recruitment of Ukrainian citizens for terrorist acts.
The discussion about restricting or blocking Telegram has been ongoing in Ukraine for several years. Defense Intelligence representative Andriy Yusov previously stated that the threat to the country’s security comes not from individual media on the platform but from the social network itself.
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