1/ The blocking of Telegram by the Russian government is a disaster for huge numbers of Russian businesses and citizens, who have now lost a key means of advertising and income. The Russian government's preferred app, MAX, lacks the features that made Telegram so essential. ⬇️ 
2/ Russian commentators are warning that two recent developments – Telegram's blocking by the state and the decision by two regulatory bodies that all advertising on it is retrospectively illegal – threaten to cause devastating economic harm.
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/2030278263260553242
3/ Telegram, which was developed by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, is almost universally used by Russians. It has become an essential business tool, with virtually every company in Russia advertising on it and many running their own channels for customers.
4/ Russian companies use it to provide customer support services. Telegram has implemented many business-friendly features, such as advanced analytics, to make it more useful. Its monetisation features also allow ordinary Russians to earn income from their personal channels.
5/ With the Russian economy facing increasing difficulties and living costs rising sharply, monetisation from Telegram has become an essential support for many ordinary Russians. This has now been cut off abruptly.
6/ The Russian government's state-sponsored messenger app, MAX, which is being positioned as the only authorised messenger app in Russia, lacks monetisation, analytics and many of the features that Telegram has. This has contributed to public resistence to the app's imposition.
7/ 'Doctors, You Are Not Alone' writes:
"Would you be surprised to read on the morning news that it's now illegal to make money as a geography teacher? Or an operating room nurse? Or a janitor? Or a [bus] conductor?"
"Would you be surprised to read on the morning news that it's now illegal to make money as a geography teacher? Or an operating room nurse? Or a janitor? Or a [bus] conductor?"
8/ "It's written right there, as if someone had essentially banned geography teachers. Without asking the teachers, parents, or students anything. Would you be surprised? And just when you'd widen your eyes, "WTF?" you were told they'd already provided comprehensive comments...
9/ "If you liked that example, you should look with the same surprised eyes at the ban on advertising on Telegram. This ban doesn't affect us in any way; we don't advertise, but this is one of those cases where it's awkward to remain silent.
10/ "Because the [Federal Antimonopoly Service]'s designation of Telegram advertising as illegal essentially bans a huge number of people whose profession is to create information products.
11/ "Some have a personal blog, others a news public page, etc. And for those who don't receive government funding, their only legitimate source of income is being cut off. "Legal" means, among other things, the source of taxes.
12/ "Some use advertising money to help the front. Some pay their team's salaries. Some live off it. Both are perfectly acceptable. Because that's their job—creating information products that people read and watch.
13/ "So, no matter how much they gloat on social media about bloggers being cut off from their income, for some reason they themselves aren't eager to work for free."
14/ A common complaint is that people who were following the rules to the letter were abruptly declared retrospectively to be lawbreakers by an arbitrary decision of the Russian government. The obvious unfairness has been called out by many commentators.
15/ Alex Kartavykh complains that "the state screwed tens of thousands of people and collapsed the legal advertising market. From which taxes were paid and where rules existed. And we all slowly brought transactions into the legal realm."
16/ "From crypto and transfers via the Faster Payment System, we received payments to SZ or individual entrepreneurs via acquiring, with all the mandatory deductions. Exactly within the limits set by Roskomnadzor, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, and the Federal Tax Service."
17/ Their reward for doing the right thing, he says, was that "the government just casually ruined everything we've done in recent years."
18/ Volodya Grubnik echoes his complaint: "And so it turns out that those who disciplinedly obey the law find themselves in a situation far worse than those who don't.
19/ "What are these state institutions trying to achieve by such behaviour? To show that the state can't be trusted? That those who disciplinedly obey the law are simply idiots? Well done—they did a great job, they demonstrated it beautifully."
20/ "What are they trying to achieve with such a policy?
To show that law-abidingness, civic duty, and trust in the state are a losing evolutionary strategy? That trusting the state is stupid, and not trusting it is smart?
To show that law-abidingness, civic duty, and trust in the state are a losing evolutionary strategy? That trusting the state is stupid, and not trusting it is smart?
21/ "That the most patriotic and fervent electorate is simply a workhorse, whose interests and needs will be ignored because 'the horse is already pulling, where else would it go?'"
Commentators warn that the government's arbitrary behaviour will push the population too far.
Commentators warn that the government's arbitrary behaviour will push the population too far.
22/ 'Doctors, You Are Not Alone' says:
"As a citizen and patriot, I'm irritated that our government has often begun to act with the grace of a bull in a china shop. That it's become the norm—to squander years of people's efforts with a poker face."
"As a citizen and patriot, I'm irritated that our government has often begun to act with the grace of a bull in a china shop. That it's become the norm—to squander years of people's efforts with a poker face."
23/ "There's no respect for citizens here at all.
It's the same story: why, when decisions are made, is dialogue with those who will be harmed by them ignored? Would you, dear government, be so kind as to engage with citizens?..
It's the same story: why, when decisions are made, is dialogue with those who will be harmed by them ignored? Would you, dear government, be so kind as to engage with citizens?..
24/ "Honestly, I get the feeling from all these recent movements that it's some kind of social experiment. It's like, how much can people tolerate?
25/ "But in reality, this experiment is more objectively physical than social: if you put a lid on a boiling pot, I don't need to tell you what happens next. And if you leave the kitchen while it's happening, something truly miraculous will happen.
26/ "For some reason, decision makers seem to think they can defy the laws of physics. And their lack of understanding of this is a very, very alarming sign for me personally. It's alarming for everyone who cares about our country."
27/ Kartavykh warns that the block will soon be overtaken by economic reality and the introduction of universal satellite phone connections via SpaceX:
"You've cut off a source of income, but access to people's minds remains until the whitelists are scrapped."
"You've cut off a source of income, but access to people's minds remains until the whitelists are scrapped."
28/ "But you can't rely on lists for long; the economy will collapse within a month. And Elon Musk is just around the corner, with his satellite internet on every phone. And without whitelists, the audience will actively resist and circumvent the pressure.
29/ "And Durov is also crafting perfectly functional proxies right now, and [communications regulator] Roskomnadzor already lost that race once."
30/ The policy is so self-defeating that Grubnik wonders if it's intentional sabotage:
"So, to implement such a policy from above, seeking to delegitimize state institutions in the eyes of the most patriotic segment of the population—is this stupidity or deliberate sabotage?"
"So, to implement such a policy from above, seeking to delegitimize state institutions in the eyes of the most patriotic segment of the population—is this stupidity or deliberate sabotage?"
31/ Kartavykh blames the British – who else? – for possibly being the hidden hands behind the block:
32/ "So, you're not even assholes, you're idiots. I don't even know what the fuck you're doing. As if you're British agents and need to tip the country into a ditch at any cost. There's simply no other way to explain this bullshit." /end
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