Telegram emerges as frontrunner amid Russia’s crackdown on Facebook, Instagram
Telegram booming in Russia
With Facebook and Instagram being banned, Russians are increasingly turning to Telegram messaging app for mass messaging in a way similar to social media.
According to AFP, Telegram app has been downloaded over 150 million times since the beginning of the year, with the official figure of half a billion active users dating back to January last year.
An average of 2.5 million new users joined Telegram daily in the last three weeks, the firm said, about a 25 per cent jump from the weeks prior, the firm said.
Even though Meta-owned WhatsApp has managed duck from the ban list, Telegram’s ability to disseminate information to large groups at a time has made it useful both for independent media and the Kremlin.
The trust on Telegram also stems from the fact that its creators, brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, are Russian citizens who left their home country in 2014.
Despite Telegram’s tendonous growth in Russia, concerns over its data security and misinformation still remain.
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"Telegram's profile has grown enormously in recent weeks, and that has raised the stakes about the impact of misinformation on the platform", Enders Analysis media analyst Jamie MacEwan told AFP.
"Meta employs tens of thousands of moderators and huge problems still slip through the net," said MacEwan.
"It is unclear how much investment in moderation Telegram can support on its current funding model."
Entirely free, Telegram started advertising last year, but with a reduced, highly regulated offering, and guaranteeing that it would not use users' private data for targeting.
In April last year, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported that the company was preparing to go public in 2023, and was aiming for a valuation of between US$30 billion and US$50 billion.
(With inputs from agencies)