Russian state media is urging users to delete Telegram, citing risks from cyberattacks to overheating phones. Is it actually unsafe?

In recent weeks, a series of articles with near-identical headlines has appeared across Russian state-controlled regional media, warning readers to delete Telegram from their phones before March 31. At the same time, the pro-Kremlin tabloid Baza published a piece claiming that Russians’ iPhones have been overheating and breaking down because VPNs (often used to access Telegram) put too much load on the processor. All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of Telegram’s slow but apparently irreversible blocking by the Russian authorities. Meduza teamed up with the fact-checking project Provereno Media to make sense of this wave of warnings.