MP explains why the FSB’s Telegram will not be banned in Ukraine

The head of the parliamentary committee acknowledged that banning Telegram would be extremely unpopular.

Yurchyshyn urged Ukrainians to treat personal data on Telegram with caution, but said that there are no plans to completely ban the messenger in Ukraine in the near future.

He said this in a lengthy interview with the Dumka outlet. Yaroslav Yurchyshyn is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Freedom of Speech.

According to him, the Ukrainian state has already restricted the use of Telegram by civil servants for work purposes. The exceptions are the dissemination of public information and communication.

Yurchyshyn noted that, in his view, Telegram is effectively a Muscovite product, so given Muscovy’s status as a terrorist state, the use of this network could be completely banned.

At the same time, according to the lawmaker, Ukrainians receive a significant amount of important information via Telegram—including messages from government agencies and data on air attacks. Some communications are already duplicated on other messengers, including WhatsApp, but people are accustomed to using Telegram.

“The restriction would be extremely unpopular, and the authorities simply will not go through with it,” Yurchyshyn said.

He also urged Ukrainians to use not only Telegram but other social networks cautiously as well, and not to provide them with unnecessary personal data.

According to Yurchyshyn, Telegram does not encrypt personal data in such a way that users can fully control how it is used, so data provided to the messenger could potentially be used against a person.