Selling internet control: the framing of the Russian ban of messaging app Telegram

ABSTRACT

How are extensive internet control, surveillance and restricted online anonymity reconceptualized into virtues of effective state governance, rather than violations of civic rights? The Russian government has instrumentalized ostensibly sound legitimations – countering terrorist and extremist propaganda, combatting child pornography – to bring about a dramatic decline in internet freedom. While these policies have been widely studied, scholarship examining how the Russian government legitimates and cultivates popular support for restricting online freedoms remains scarce. This article therefore studies how restrictions of internet freedom are framed in political and media discourses. It focuses on the case of Telegram, a popular messaging application that was banned in Russia in April 2018 for its refusal to provide the FSB with access to encrypted messages in compliance with anti-terrorism legislation. It finds that media framing of the ban was more diverse than the official governmental line. While national security framing was important, the ‘rule of law’ frame occurred most frequently, and conspiracy framing was markedly infrequent.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet governance
• Russia
• policy framing
• messaging apps
• Telegram
• surveillance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The use of broader search terms, such as ‘social media’, did not return relevant items.

2 No data is publicly available on full broadcasting schedules on program item level.

3 All translations by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek under [grant number 446-17-005]; Dutch Organization for Scientific Research.

Notes on contributors

Mariëlle Wijermars

Dr Mariëlle Wijermars is a Visiting Researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki and Assistant Professor in Cyber-Security and Politics at Maastricht University. Previously, she was a Rubicon postdoctoral fellow at the University of Helsinki. She conducts research on internet governance with a focus on the impact of internet policy on human rights, and on the framing of cyberthreats and policy responses. She is co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Russia Studies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) and Freedom of Expression in Russia's New Mediasphere (Routledge, 2020) [email: [email protected]].