On April 15, TSN (Television News Service) which is one of Ukraine’s top-rated news outlets, received a warning from the Telegram technical support service concerning the alleged violation of trademark rights while using the official Telegram-channel of TSN. The administration of the messenger service threatens to block the TSN page, if the so-called violations are not eliminated in 12 hours, notably, the name and logo have to be changed.

1+1 Media Group is surprised by such cynicism and outraged by the fact that criminals who have for a long time illegally used the brand and the content of TSN for personal enrichment through the sale of advertising on a fake account, are trying to block the official TSN page on Telegram. 1+1 Media is preparing an official response for the Telegram technical support service, in which we will prove our rights to use the TSN trademark.

In August 2018, an illegal channel Telegram News Service (TSN), which used the TSN brand, was discovered and 1+1 filed a relevant complaint to the Telegram technical support. On March 7, 2019, 1+1 filed a complaint with the Cyber Police. On March 20, the relevant criminal proceedings were opened and the pretrial investigation began.

The possible owner of the fake Telegram channel Telegram News Service (TSN) is Dmitry Ulanovsky as payment for advertising on the page comes into his bank account. The channel is used for political advertising and paid promotion of other pages of the messenger, which offers tourist and educational services. It is also quite obvious that the majority of fake page subscribers are bots. Therefore, we urge advertisers not to place their own advertising on such illegal resources.

In this situation, the 1+1 media group is reluctant to admit the possibility that Telegram, which according to open sources is funded by a Russian entrepreneur, specifically tries to block the official channel of one of the most credible news services just 6 days before the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine. Considering the fact that earlier the messenger did not react to TSN complaints about fake pages.