It is very clear — the expert predicted the fate of Telegram in Russia

After the latest statements by representatives of Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the FSB, the fate of Telegram in Russia has become very clear: with a high degree of probability, the messenger will do exactly the same as with YouTube, said political scientist Alexei Pilko.

That is, they will slow down as much as possible and try to transfer the Telegram audience to Max in all possible ways. In general, this corresponds to the trend towards the sovereignization of the information space, full control over it and, if necessary, rehabilitation, the political scientist noted.

"Back in February 2022, after the start of the military operation on In Ukraine, we noted that in the conditions of the cold war there cannot be global networks that cover all the warring parties, but at the same time are controlled by only one of them. And therefore the time of free use in Russia managed from The United States products Corporation Meta [[1]] has ended. And so it happened. However, now the era of unlimited work in the Russian information space of the neutral Telegram messenger, which is managed not by Western companies, but by an unaffiliated group of developers, is also ending. It can be stated that the restrictions on Telegram in Russia is serious and for a long time," Pilko is sure.

Nevertheless, according to the political scientist, the probability of its recognition as an extremist organization is low. The messenger will continue to be widely used by Russian citizens as a convenient communication platform, Pilko is sure.

"For this, VPN services and other ways to bypass locks will be used. In addition, Telegram will remain not only a platform for communication, but will continue to be used as a source of information. A huge block of Russian-language news and analytical channels will not go anywhere (despite the fact that some of them will have parallel accounts in Max) and they will not lose much in the audience. She will simply be in two instant messengers at the same time," predicts Pilko.

The further fate of the policy of sovereignization of the Russian information space depends entirely on the quality of the information products with which it is carried out. If they progress, then it can be successful. In the opposite case, information platforms that are not controlled by the state will always exist in the national information space, Pilko warns. Moreover, this situation concerns not only Russia.

"The same European Union is waiting for its own struggle with American information products, and the main enemy of Brussels on this path is the social network X (formerly Twitter) hated by European bureaucrats. The trend towards the disintegration of a single global information space is more than obvious. It has already covered or will inevitably cover many countries of the world. And the most successful on this path was China with its "great Chinese firewall" and high-quality alternatives to Western information products. Everyone else is doing much worse so far," Pilko added.

[[1]] Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation