Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin considers it necessary to take urgent measures against Telegram, TikTok, and Instagram, which are actively used by the Russian Federation to spread propaganda and recruit Ukrainians.
The Ombudsman stated this in an interview with Apostrophe .
" The situation with the protection of the language rights of Ukrainian citizens is much better. For example, during 2024 we eliminated more than 75% of violations in the Internet sphere alone. But, given that the Internet and, in particular, individual Telegram channels, pages on social networks, Instagram, TikTok, still remain Russian-language and are a source, including, of recruiting Ukrainian citizens who undermine issues related to the security and defense of Ukraine - it seems to me that state authorities need to take urgent response measures in order to prevent the spread of propaganda, disinformation, and blind recruitment of Ukrainian citizens ," Kremin said.
He emphasized that recent cases, such as in Ternopil (a 14-year-old schoolgirl was detained after being recruited by Russian special services and forced to manufacture and plant explosives near a police station), indicate that children remain among the vulnerable categories.
" And children are one of the main users of the Internet, including through mobile devices. I will say even more - the main information that Ukrainian citizens receive about events in Ukraine, including about the war, about security, about missile attacks, air alerts - from the Internet. Therefore, the issues of the Internet and legislative regulation of its use in the territory of Ukraine, in the part of social networks that are of Russian origin, must be regulated ," Kremin believes.
Recall that last year, Ukraine restricted the use of Telegram in government agencies, military formations, and critical infrastructure facilities.