Abroad got it, Durov on tour in the CIS, Dogs bot “went viral”, Zen doesn't change

A review of the main social media news of the past two weeks: no one slowed down foreign social networks, Roskomnadzor demanded to unblock 200+ Russian YouTube channels, Durov continues his tour of the CIS, the Dogs Telegram bot has gone viral, Telegram has almost caught up with VKontakte and other news.

We'll slow you all down, again!

Foreign social networks got it again. On the evening of July 7, WhatsApp dropped away among some residents of Krasnodar Krai, Dagestan and Moscow. In the State Duma stated that WhatsApp is being slowed down in Russia and may be blocked.

On the 12th, State Duma deputy Anton Nemkin joined the latest crusade against foreign social networks. He retellingrallied the plot of the nightmare of domestic Telegram bloggers about the fact that their favorite messenger could be completely blocked. However, what to do in such a case with 86 The deputy did not explain how many million Russians visit Telegram every month.

I dare to assume that in the case of a messenger block, traffic will go to Vkontakte, and this help will come in time, because over the past year attendance the domestic social network has not increased at all:

YouTube also came under fire when Rostelecom warned about a possible slowdown of the foreign video hosting service due to some technical problems on the part of Google.

“It’s all because of technical problems with equipment belonging to the American corporation Google, the operator explained. The existing capacities are seriously overloaded, the traffic is high, and the network infrastructure has not been updated for more than two years.” 1tv.ru

Of course, on social networks at this time it was boiling over:

It all ended in nothing.

Again.

In the State Duma called don't believe the rumors.

Peskov reported that “there is no slowdown.”

Rogozin stood up for Telegram and called deputies “not to wave paper checkers” at the messenger. There were a number of other denials, but so what.

Let's go our separate ways, guys.

Bloggers, get ready!

The State Duma is holding its second reading of a bill aimed at tightening the circulation of grey SIM cards. will consider the following initiative: public channels with an audience of more than 1,000 people per day will have to transfer data about themselves to Roskomnadzor.

The best part is that Russian companies will be prohibited from placing advertisements on public pages if the users of these pages have not provided information about themselves to Roskomnadzor.

There they reminded (in Roskomnadzor) that anonymity on the Internet leads to irresponsibility: criminals feel unpunished. For example, they register fake accounts in messengers and social networks on SIM cards without an established owner. They create communities in which they spread fakes, information calling for violence, involving children in committing illegal acts and other prohibited information. Russian newspaper

Let me remind you, this March in Russia counted 69 million active authors. That's half the country's population! Where did that come from? Do shift workers and housewives earn extra money?

In general, we are waiting for subcutaneous chips and automatic synchronization of bloggers with Roskomnadzor. Sorry, it's a joke.

Roskomnadzor Demands Google to Unblock 200+ YouTube Accounts

Google received Roskomnadzor has requested that the accounts of more than 200 Russian YouTube users be unblocked. Among them are RT, RBC, Shaman, Gazmanov, Chicherina, Prilepin and others. Since 2020, Google has applied restrictive measures to 207 domestic resources, 83 of them in 2024.

There is no information whether Google responds to such requests at all or not.

Google flies in the clouds – come down to earth before you get banned!

Pavel Durov continues his tour of the CIS: from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan

Pavel Durov visited Alma-Ata, Astana, Burabay National Park and Charyn Canyon. While the creator fourth most popular in the world of messenger enjoyed the beautiful landscape of the country and playing a musical instrument, Kazakhstan's regulator AFSA approved Toncoin cryptocurrency trading on licensed platforms. This means that investors can now freely buy, sell and store TON on these platforms.

This is the rate of the cryptocurrency itself influenced slightly:

Then Durov went to Uzbekistan and, of course, shared with us a new batch of stunning photos:

In less than a day, 1 million people subscribed to the Dogs telegram bot

In Telegram is gaining the popularity of the Dogs bot, which awards digital coins $DOGS depending on the “age” of the subscriber. The earlier the subscriber's page was created, the more coins he receives as a reward. Who took up the monetization of pixels this time is unknown.

At the time of this report, Dogs Community had over 6 million subscribers. Just so you know, that number of subscribers is bot dialed in 14 days. For comparison, hamster hamster kombat got this number of subscribers in three months.

Scoundrel George Soros, are you the one making us get calluses on our fingers?

Telegram has almost caught up with VKontakte's audience in Russia

In June 2024, the gap between the number of VKontakte and Telegram users in Russia decreased up to 3.64 million people per month. A year ago, this gap was twice as big – 9.5 million people per month. This may mean that soon Pavel Durov's “younger brainchild” will surpass the “older” in terms of the number of Russian audiences and take 3rd place among the most popular social networks in Russia (YouTube is first, Whatsapp* is second).

Durov rarely shares information about the number of users, here I have collected for you the international Telegram statistics on years:

In the world ranking of social networks, Telegram is on 8th place and is breathing down the necks of the American Facebook Messenger*, as well as the Chinese WeChat and TikTok.

Telegu In was bought out by the Ultimate Capital fund

Venture fund Ultimate Capital bought out Telega.in is a platform where companies and individuals buy and sell advertising in Telegram channels and chats. Among Telega.in's major customers are MTS, Restore, Ozon, etc. Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst at FG Finam, estimated the deal at between 130 and 240 million rubles.

By the end of 2024, according to ABA forecasts, the official native advertising market in Telegram may reach 10.4 billion rubles with a growth of 38% year-on-year. Experts suggest that the volume of the native placement market in the messenger will grow by 40% annually in the next three years. RB.RU

At one time, Ultimate Capital invested in the scooter sharing service Whoosh and the educational platform Skillbox.

What we would like to expect from this deal is a reduction in commissions at Telega.in, which is essentially a monopolist in the native advertising market of Telegram channels in Russia. Telega.in There is analogues, but in terms of the number of channels placed and functional capabilities, the latter is ahead of the rest.

Zen updated its logo and colors

Zen updated corporate style, logo and colors in the interface of the blog platform. The update also affected the main page, mobile, social networks and advertising materials of the platform.

What changed remained a mystery to me.

See for yourself:

Users reacted to the update in mixed ways:

In my opinion, the Zen redesign looks like a heating boiler, for the payment of which I chipped in 300 rubles from the entire building for a year and a half. A year after its installation, this boiler seems to be there, but at the same time it is not.

It's about the same here.

If I didn't fully understand, please correct me in the comments.

VKontakte user survey: artificial intelligence is a threat to humanity

More than 42% of respondents considerthat AI is a threat to humanity. This is the result of a survey conducted by RIA Novosti together with VKontakte on the news agency's page on the social network, conducted in early July.

Considering that OpenAI's CEO recently predicted about the creation of human-like AI (AGI) in the current decade, then the fears of VKontakte users do not seem so unfounded.

The planet is rapidly integrating with artificial intelligence – this year 55% of companies have already use AI, while corporate investments in generative around the world grew up 8 times in ten years (I consider this to be outdated data from 2022).

Want to discuss this topic? Join us my post about exposing the power-hungry and unscrupulous corporations developing AI today.

What was not included in the review

• Hamster Kombat users have been subject to massive hacking of Telegram (RBC)

• Hackers have learned to hack Android smartphones via Telegram, using the sending of video files (Hi-tech)

• European Commission: “Paid checkboxes in X deceive users – they do not prove the authenticity of the profile” (VC)

• Elon Musk asked the European Commission to introduce hidden censorship in X (R.B.) and called WhatsApp* an unsafe messenger for the second time (R.B.)

So, share your opinion about the news from social networks.

When will they finally block YouTube?

Who is behind the Dogs telegram bot?

Is this the same man pictured in front of a lifeless canyon in Kazakhstan (see photo above)?

I'm waiting for you in the comments.

Have a great week!