A new bill to regulate Telegram will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by the end of September

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine intends to develop and submit a new bill to regulate the Telegram messenger in Ukraine by the end of September.

This decision was made yesterday by the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, headed by Mykyta Poturaiev, as reported on the parliament’s website.

The deputies reviewed a bill proposed by Mykola Knyazhytsky, which suggests forcing the messenger to disclose its ownership structure under the threat of certain sanctions. They decided to use this bill as a basis to create a new document.

Ukrainian deputies have outlined two main requirements for Telegram:

• Ensure communication with Ukrainian authorities regarding compliance with legislation.
• Confirm the safety of the messenger for Ukrainians and the absence of entities such as the FSB, other Russian government structures, or citizens of the aggressor country among its owners.

Knyazhytsky stated that Telegram currently operates “in a gray area of legislation,” which allows it to be used “in operations against Ukraine—from information campaigns aimed at breaking Ukrainian resistance to aggression, to the direct collection and use of sensitive state and personal data of citizens in armed aggression.”

It’s worth noting that Knyazhytsky’s bill to control the popular Telegram messenger was registered in the Rada at the end of March.

There has long been discussion in Ukraine about the need to introduce military censorship and ban Telegram altogether.