The tightening of restrictions on the "Telegram" messenger in Russia has also had a significant impact on the audience of government-aligned media channels.
Medianews.az, citing the "Meduza" online publication, reports that in March, the views of the Kremlin's fiery propagandist, editor-in-chief of Russia's RT channel Margarita Simonyan’s posts on her Telegram channel decreased by 52.3% compared to February.
On RT's Telegram page, views dropped by 42%.
The Russian government is encouraging "Telegram" users to switch to the local "Max" messenger. However, this process is progressing slowly.
Simonyan’s Telegram channel has 537 thousand subscribers, while her platform on "Max" has 165 thousand subscribers.
RT annually receives approximately 32-33 billion rubles in funding from the Russian budget.
Among Telegram channels of government-affiliated media and bloggers, the largest drop in views was recorded on the "Kreml.Novosti" channel – where the decline was 68.1%.