Lacking oversight, Telegram thrives in Ukraine disinformation battle

In the United States, Telegram’s lower public profile has helped it mostly avoid high level scrutiny from Congress, but it has not gone unnoticed. — AFP

WASHINGTON: Two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, an account on the Telegram messaging platform posing as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his armed forces to surrender.

The message was not authentic, with the real Zelensky soon denying the claim on his official Telegram channel, but the incident highlighted a major problem: disinformation quickly spreads unchecked on the encrypted app.