It is a common trope for embattled autocrats to claim that protesters are in fact puppets in the hands of nefarious foreign plotters. Last month, Belarusian authorities declared Nexta’s channel and logo to be “extremist materials” in an unsuccessful attempt to scare followers off. At the time of writing, Lukashenko’s channel has 86,000 subscribers, while Nexta Live has almost 2 million, an impressive feat in a country of fewer than 10 million. Lukashenko was meant to appear uncompromising and in control, but the video was quickly copied to opposition Telegram channels, overlaid with insulting captions, voiceovers and memes, and seen there by far more. Later, his press service posted video footage, shot from inside the helicopter, to his newly created Telegram channel: the leader, dressed in black and wielding an automatic rifle, surveyed the crowds below “They’ve scarpered like rats,” he muttered, as he peered down from the windows. On the Sunday I followed protesters through Minsk, Lukashenko took off from his residence in a helicopter and flew over us. But if he can’t beat Telegram, he has decided to join it instead. “How can you stop these Telegram channels? Can you block them? No. Most importantly, Nexta Live and a number of smaller opposition channels feed subscribers with organisational information and rallying cries.
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Opposition politicians issue press releases on a Telegram channel journalists swap tips about where things are happening and how to avoid being detained and people who have been tortured or beaten by Lukashenko’s thugs can find groups offering free medical or psychological support. In Belarus, it permeates the political landscape. Each day, another 1.5 million people sign up. In the past five years, Telegram has grown at a remarkable speed, hitting 60 million users in 2015 and 400 million in April this year. The combination of usability and privacy has made the app popular with protestors (it has been adopted by Extinction Rebellion) as well as people standing against authoritarian regimes (in Hong Kong and Iran, as well as Belarus) it is also used by terrorists and criminals. And its “channels” allow moderators to disseminate information quickly to large numbers of followers in a way that other messaging services do not they combine the reach and immediacy of a Twitter feed, and the focus of an email newsletter. It allows huge encrypted chat groups, making it easier to organise people, like a slicker version of WhatsApp. Telegram, a messaging app created by the reclusive Russian exile Pavel Durov, is suited to running protests for a number of reasons. Since then, every Sunday, they have come out each week, Nexta has announced the time and place of the protest a day or two before. “Minsk! Do not approach the police line! The best decision now is to disperse.” The crowd did just that. Again, advice flashed up in the Nexta Telegram feed. It was clear that attempting to push through would result in bloody clashes.
Outside was a police line: cars, makeshift fences and a few hundred riot officers in balaclavas with shields. “Nexta says we should go towards the residence!” one man called out, joining a column of people making the short walk to Lukashenko’s official residence. The first place they looked was Nexta Live (pronounced “Nekhta” and meaning “someone” in Belarusian), a channel on Telegram. Each week, Nexta has announced the time and place of the protest a day or two before
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Mobile internet was not working for everyone (the authorities had been switching it off at key moments) but those tech-savvy enough to install the right virtual private network (VPN) apps were able to relay the news. After a tense, half-hour standoff, they looked down at their phones again. Some people shouted abuse others offered the soldiers flowers and implored them to join the side of the people. When we arrived, the monument had been surrounded by barbed wire and placed under armed guard. The enormous crowd began to flow from Independence Square, through the broad central avenues of Minsk towards a second world war memorial – because many people had received messages on their phones telling them to head there.
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