Issues related to legislative regulation of Telegram

A person’s rights to freedom of speech and access to information have undergone significant changes in the legislative approach, now they are the basic digital rights of a person. The article describes the current state of legal regulation of the media sphere and explains the legislator’s understanding of online media and the possibility of legal regulation of social networks, which, according to current legislation, are named as platforms for sharing information and video. Main attention is paid to the Telegram platform, which although it is not currently a subject in the media sphere, but it is rapidly gaining momentum throughout the world and is the most popular in Ukraine, which make a significant impact on the Ukrainian information space. The article describes all risks that are associated with the use of the platform for the user and for national security in general. They are platform connection with Russia, the lack of a transparent ownership structure, as well as the lack of proper protection of personal data and other information about users. Another problem for Ukrainian national security is anonymous Telegram channels and the huge amount of disinformation that spreads by them. The article analysed European media regulation acts, which were recently adopted. Also, Ukrainian draft law, which aims to regulate the Telegram activity and other online platforms on the territory of Ukraine, was also studied. As a result of this reserch the authors come to the conclusion about the insufficiency of the introduction of the rules of reasonable Telegram use and the need to ban this platform on the territory of Ukraine, as it was done with Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki platforms (already banned on the territory of Ukraine). After all, only a complete ban on services related to the Russia can protect national security and will not harm the rights of its users to freedom of speech.