Reuters: Telegram mistakenly blocked the chatbots of GUR, SBU and “YeVoroh”

The Telegram company, which owns the messenger of the same name, commented on the blocking of the official bots of the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Security Service (SBU) and the “eVoroh” bot from the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

An unnamed Telegram employee told Reuters that the bots were “temporarily disabled due to an error” but were later “restored.” He did not provide any additional details. The nature of the error is unknown.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov did not officially comment on this situation.

• On the night of April 28, Telegram blocked the work of some official bots that opposed Russiaʼs military aggression against Ukraine. For some time, the bots of GUR, SBU and "eVoroh" from the Ministry of Digital Transformation did not work. On the morning of April 29, bots became available again.
• GUR called the blocking "unfounded" and contrary to the rules and public statements of Telegram management.
• On April 24, the founder of Telegram Pavel Durov said that Apple approached him with a request to block certain news or propaganda channels for iPhone users with Ukrainian SIM cards. According to him, "changes are inevitable" because Telegram must consider requests from the App Store to remain available to users. He did not say what exactly the changes are about, which channels will be blocked and according to what principle.