Proekt.Media, a new independent online publication which claims to cover even “complex and dangerous topics,” has inquired about “how the authorities turned Telegram into television” by colonizing and buying out the medium.
According to journalists Mikhail Rubin and Roman, Kremlin officials were initially worried about the influence of Telegram channels on Russia’s political system. In late 2016, these officials started leaking insider scoops to certain journalists, to see where on the network the information emerged. Instead, the Kremlin quickly discovered that the people behind these channels are generally “scam artists” capitalizing on Russia’s “information shortage” by “creating the illusion that certain informed insiders” would tell the truth behind online nicknames.
- Read the original story in Russian in Proekt.Media or its summary in English in Meduza.io
