The Center for Counteracting Disinformation explained the ban on the military using Telegram.

The Telegram messenger is prohibited for use on official devices by employees of government agencies and critical infrastructure enterprises, security and defense sector personnel, and military personnel. The decision was made because the messenger poses a potential danger. This was stated by the director of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Andriy Kovalenko during the telethon.

“There has never been a guarantee regarding Telegram on where the information is stored after your communication, even if you deleted the conversation with another person. Part of Telegram's servers are still located in Russia, part of the servers are presumably located in Dubai. Accordingly, whether these servers are controlled, whether Russian special services have access to them, or not – is unknown”, he said.

The fact that the correspondence is stored on external servers could be noticed by anyone who changed their smartphone and logged into their account from another smartphone.

“Documents and files that you sent to another person are pulled up if you did not clear the correspondence with them. This information is directly stored. Using Telegram as a messenger not for reading news, but exactly for communication by people working for the state, military personnel poses a potential danger”, – explained Andriy Kovalenko.

That is why a ban was introduced on sending official documents in Telegram and communicating in this messenger about official matters. Already since 2022, the military has stopped using Telegram, switching mainly to Signal and WhatsApp.

“As for using it for official purposes, for example, running official Telegram channels of government agencies, it is not prohibited”, – explained the head of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation of the NSDC of Ukraine.

Recall, Telegram came under restrictions

in government agencies, military formations, and at critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine. The corresponding decision was made at a meeting of the National Cybersecurity Coordination Center.

By the way, to deter intruders from abusing Telegram search, the company updated the terms of use and the app's privacy policy. Now IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate the company's rules can be disclosed to the relevant authorities in response to legitimate requests.