Social networks have long been an integral part of our lives. We read the news on Facebook first thing in the morning. We chat on WhatsApp, view memes on Instagram, and watch videos on YouTube or TikTok when we have a minute to spare. According to the results of OPORA’s survey, more than two-thirds of Ukrainian citizens (73%) get their news from social media.
Humanity has invented many social media platforms, and you definitely use some of them. Today we are going to talk about TikTok and Telegram, because they often fall under the spotlight due to high-profile scandals, conflicts, lawsuits, allegations of personal data collection and user monitoring. For example, TikTok has been repeatedly criticized for its connections to China, which is causing concern for national governments around the world, especially in the United States and Europe. Meanwhile, Telegram has evoked suspicions over its possible ties to Russian security services, involvement in spreading disinformation and selling illegal goods.
The popularity of both platforms continues to grow, and so do the risks faced by their users. What is wrong with them and why is it important to be careful every time you post a photo or watch a funny video?
Telegram is the most popular social media platform in Ukraine, and one that has been the main subject of controversy in recent months. Some activists and politicians propose to ban it. Their proposal has caused outrage among ordinary users and bloggers, who use Telegram to raise millions of dollars for purchasing drones and covering other needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Why can it be dangerous for Ukrainians?
Telegram was created by Russian businessman Pavel Durov in 2013, right after he pulled out of his first successful project “VKontakte”. It is alleged that Durov was forced to leave the project under pressure from Russian security agencies, which demanded that he disclose the personal data of Ukrainian administrators of Euromaidan groups.
Although Durov constantly emphasizes that Telegram is independent of any government agencies, many investigators have reason to doubt this statement, especially given the rumors that Durov keeps contacts with various politicians and oligarchs, including Russian ones. For example, Telegram borrowed money from “VTB” Bank and several Russian oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, at the early stage of its development.
In 2018, Russian state authorities planned to ban Telegram for spreading “extremist and terrorist content”. The FSB officers demanded that Telegram hands over encryption keys to them as a condition for continuation of this social media company in Russia, which would allow the federal security agency to read all messages sent by Telegram users. After lengthy negotiations with Telegram’s senior management and several unsuccessful attempts to block the work of social media company, the Russian government suddenly changed its mind and even thanked the company management for cooperation. Accordingly, whether Russian security services have gained access to Telegram user data (and if yes, then exactly what kind of data) remains an open question.
Telegram allows you to read other users’ correspondence, if you wish to do so. Other messengers, such as WhatsApp or Signal, have built-in end-to-end encryption which ensures that only you and the sender can read the message, while other users will only see a set of unreadable characters. This feature is also available in Telegram, but it doesn’t work automatically. This means that almost anyone can obtain access to your chat, if you don’t take security measures.
Furthermore, Telegram stores quite a lot of data about its users: contact lists, device type, geolocation. This data is not anonymized and can be used for monitoring purposes.
Most importantly, Telegram is one of the main platforms for spreading disinformation. Unlike other social networks, Telegram does not have any content moderation policies in place. This social media platform allows its users to sell weapons, promote violence and hatred, post videos with graphic violence, etc. In Western countries, Telegram is gradually becoming a new darknet, which is used to coordinate radical protests and sell illegal substances.
It has to be borne in mind that Telegram is not blocked in Russia, meaning that you may fall victim to information-psychological operations, bots and FSB agents. Although Telegram occasionally agrees to cooperate with the Ukrainian authorities and block some pro-Russian channels in Ukraine, many of them are still publicly accessible, which raises a logical question: is this cooperation for real or is it just an attempt to avoid the banning of messenger in Ukraine?
Now let’s move on to TikTok. In Western countries, including the United States, TikTok is perceived as a major threat. TikTok also poses a security threat to our country, given that the data collected by this social media platform ends up in the hands of China that has formed an alliance with the Russian Federation.
Back in 2018, the creators of TikTok announced that they would deepen cooperation with the Chinese authorities to promote the socialist worldview. By the way, the director of “ByteDance” (the company that owns TikTok) made this statement right after the Chinese government’s attempt to impose a ban on other products of this company.
There are no truly private companies in China. Every business entity is obliged to form a local branch of the Communist Party consisting of three or four members. Although the state government owns only 1% of “ByteDance” stock, this is enough for obtaining full access to the company’s internal information
Moreover, in November 2023, “Forbes” reported that Chinese government agencies had gained access to “ByteDance” company’s internal tool set that allows them to monitor web traffic and access the users’ personal data. As a result, the Chinese authorities began using TikTok for espionage purposes.
One of the most notorious cases of espionage is the surveillance on “Financial Times” reporter who wrote an article about the developers of TikTok and their connections to the Chinese Communist Party. Leaked audio recordings of internal meetings of the TikTok staff confirmed that its employees had repeatedly accessed classified data about American users and their phone numbers.
Naturally, TikTok denies all of these allegations. However, according to Chinese law, citizens of China are obliged to “support, assist, and cooperate" with national intelligence service. Therefore, the Chinese government can force ByteDance to hand over user data by legal means and use it to influence the internal politics of other countries, including Ukraine.
Telegram helps to raise millions of dollars in donations, while TikTok allows you to communicate with the people that live under Russian occupation. However, the threats posed by these social networks are very real, so we need to regulate their actions in one way or another.
The most effective way to do this is to adapt Ukrainian legislation to the EU regulation on digital services. This includes protecting users’ personal data, counteracting publication of illegal content and disinformation on social media, regulating political advertising activities, etc.
Until this happens, the responsibility for consuming information on these social media lies with each of us. Therefore, you need to filter the information that reaches you and take responsibility for your own information environment.