Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada banned the use of the communication app Telegram for its officials on their work devices, MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn said on Oct. 7 in a Facebook post.
Lawmakers and parliament officials will be barred from installing Telegram on work devices and will have to use two-factor authentication and other security measures when using the app for other purposes.
The measure was recommended by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council amid worries that the messaging app, founded by Russian businessman Pavel Durov, represents a danger to national security.
"I think that such security measures are quite logical. Unfortunately, there have already been examples of third parties obtaining data on state employees through Telegram," Yurchyshyn said.
The decision comes after Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk warned of fake messages sent from his Telegram account that he had not used for more than three years.
Lawmakers will be allowed to keep using Telegram for personal communication on their personal devices.
The popularity of Telegram in Ukraine skyrocketed after the start of the invasion in 2022, particularly due to its anonymous channels that mass-spread content to subscribers while preserving the full anonymity of the publisher.
Telegram CEO and co-founder Durov was briefly detained in France and later charged with "complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group" and other crimes.
Russian-born Durov has claimed he is a pariah and has been effectively exiled from Russia, but on Aug. 27, it was reported he had visited Russia over 60 times since leaving the country.
Kateryna Hodunova
