The number of views of posts from propaganda channels has sharply decreased after the start of Telegram blocking in Russia, writes the publication “Chto Delat?” referring to the data of the TGStat service.
The largest decline was recorded by the “Kremlin. News” channel, which lost 68.1% of its audience. The channel led by Margarita Simonyan saw a decrease of 52.3%, while that of propagandist Aleksandr Sladkov — by 49.4%.
On RT in Russian, views have dropped by 42%, and for propagandists Vladimir Soloviov and Pavel Zarubin — by 47.2% and, respectively, 42.7%.
And other pro-Kremlin platforms, such as RIA Novosti and Tsargrad, have lost 43.9% and 41.2% of their audience. Channels like Mash, Baza, Shot, as well as pro-war channels “Doi maiori”, “Rîbar” and “Operațiunea Z” have recorded declines between 31.9% and 36.3%.
On the other hand, the audience of independent or opposition media, whose public already uses VPNs to avoid blockages, remained relatively stable: the Russian service of the BBC saw a decrease of only 9.1%, at Meduza – of 3.7%, and at the Astra channel – of 1.6%.
According to a survey conducted by the Levada Center, in March 55% of citizens spoke out against the restrictions imposed on Telegram and WhatsApp (in August, supporters of the restrictions outnumbered opponents — 49% versus 41%).
The blockages have also led to an increased interest in VPNs: in a year, the proportion of those who know nothing about these services has dropped from 32% to 23%, and the proportion of informed individuals has increased from 31% to 38%.
Read more HERE