Telegram blocked Ukrainian bots with data about russian attacks. For some reason this surprised everyone

This morning it became known that the administration of the Telegram messenger blocked a number of Ukrainian bots for collecting data on russian attacks. “Evorog” from the Ministry of Digital Development, “Stop russian war bot” from the SBU, “Main Intelligence Bot” from the Main Intelligence Directorate and others did not work, in particular, the bot for tracking “Shaheds” and messages about the coordinates of russian military facilities in southern Ukraine. By the way, these bots were verified in the network of Telegram channels.

Within an hour, the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security announced that Telegram had resumed the work of Ukrainian official chatbots.

However, along with blocking Ukrainian channels with bots, russia created a number of fake ones. , which disguise themselves as Ukrainian in order to collect data. The State Traffic Safety Inspectorate urges not to use bots on Telegram and not to transfer personal data there.

On April 24, Telegram owner Pavel Durov noted, not for the first time, that the messenger would block channels that collect information for military operations. Officially, Telegram opposes the use of its capabilities for military purposes.

We should also note that Durov’s current relationship with the russian government and security forces remains unclear. But it is worth understanding that, with a high probability, his departure from russia would not have been possible without special agreements.

A couple of days ago, Pavel Durov said that Apple had sent a request to block some Telegram channels for Ukrainian users. Although the platform community usually opposes such blocking, the company still has to listen to such requests in order for the application to continue to be available in the App Store.

Pavel Durov recalled that back in February 2022 he proposed limiting Telegram channels in russia and Ukraine because they were used for military propaganda. However, users were categorically against such restrictions. At the same time, the platform blocks accounts and bots that collect coordinates for targeted strikes or publish personal information with calls for violence. Well, and at the same time those that bot networks created in the russian federation are complaining about.