A Ticket to the Pre-Digital Era: How Blocking Telegram Is Causing Degradation of Small Businesses in the rf

roskomnadzor has begun implementing a strategy of “gradual restrictions” on the Telegram messenger, which effectively means switching from selective blocking to the full-scale displacement of the platform from the domestic market. The official reason is traditionally “failure to comply with russian legislation”, but the underlying reason is the kremlin’s desire to completely eliminate the last segment of the free public sphere.

The restrictions on Telegram demonstrate the russian military-political leadership’s conscious relying on the interests of conservative “electoral groups” and the budget sector, for whom the messenger is not a critically important tool. In the kremlin’s ideological paradigm, the digital activity of small businesses, independent bloggers, and media is seen as a side effect and even an undesirable product. In fact, moscow is returning to the soviet model of strict control over any means of disseminating information, where the right to broadcast content belongs exclusively to state television. In this coordinate system, the needs of entrepreneurs and creative intellectuals are ignored in favor of maximum control over the masses.

For russian small and medium-sized businesses, as well as the professional blogging community, these measures are a real economic blow. Telegram has evolved into a key platform for marketing, monetization, and direct communication with customers. Forcing the audience to move to platforms controlled by special services, such as the Max messenger, not only destroys established business models, but calls into question the very possibility of “decent” earnings for small businesses and the existence of independent digital income for russian bloggers.

In a situation where there is virtually no choice and state media remain the only “permitted” reality, the restrictions on Telegram are yet another step by the rf towards the complete digital isolation of its society and the systemic curtailment of civil liberties.