The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a survey to find out how Ukrainians perceive the threats of Russian propaganda on social media and their attitudes toward the ban on Telegram. The survey was conducted on September 1-6, 2024, by telephone interviews with 1,015 respondents in all government-controlled regions of Ukraine.
The overwhelming majority of respondents (71%) consider the spread of Russian disinformation and propaganda on social media to be a fairly or even very serious threat. At the same time, one-third of respondents consider this threat to be one of the greatest – 33%. The remaining 38% say that this threat, although serious, is not one of the biggest. At the same time, 23% of respondents say that this is not a significant threat or there are no threats at all. Although 18% of them admit that there is some damage.
KIIS experts also asked Ukrainians about their attitude to the ban on Telegram in Ukraine. It turned out that currently only 9% of respondents support the idea of a complete ban on the messenger, which are periodically voiced by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities. At the same time, 26% of respondents believe that Telegram should not be controlled in any way. On the other hand, the majority of Ukrainians (54%) believe that Telegram should not be completely banned in Ukraine, but that certain restrictions and controls should be introduced, such as blocking certain channels, etc.
The graph below shows the data in terms of how much respondents in general consider Russian disinformation and propaganda on social media to be a serious security threat. Even among those who consider the threat to be very serious, only 15% now support a complete ban on Telegram in Ukraine.
Those respondents who do not currently support a complete ban on Telegram in Ukraine were asked an additional question whether they would support a ban if the messenger’s owners refused to block certain Telegram channels. Moreover, an experiment was implemented and each respondent was offered only one type of Telegram channel that, in a hypothetical scenario, Telegram owners refused to block. The results are shown in the graph below. Those respondents who were immediately in favor of a complete ban on Telegram were counted here as those who support the ban.
If Telegram owners categorically refuse to block channels that spread Russian propaganda and disinformation, 60% of Ukrainians would support a complete ban on the messenger. At the same time, 32% would not support blocking.
At the same time, the majority of Ukrainians would support a ban on Telegram if the messenger’s owners refused to block channels used by the Russian occupiers for communication and drug distribution. Thus, in case of refusal to block the channels used by the Russian occupiers for communication, 71% would support the ban (21% would not support it). In case of refusal to block drug distribution channels, 70% would support the ban (20% would not support it).
Source: KIIS