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The social media and chat app has become an increasingly popular destination for unfiltered news, pro-Kremlin propaganda and everything in between

Russia’s campaign to restrict access to Twitter, Facebook FB 2.07% and other sources of uncensored information on its invasion of Ukraine has skipped one crucial platform: the social media and chat app Telegram.

Anyone in Russia who wanted to follow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress on Wednesday could find it on Telegram, along with images of Russia bombing civilian areas in Ukraine. Users are decamping en masse to Telegram from banned apps like Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram as well as others that are under threat of being blocked, like Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG 0.68% YouTube.

That has helped push some of Telegram’s Russian-language news, politics and commentary channels—already among the app’s most popular—to double and triple their numbers of subscribers in recent weeks, with several gaining more than a million new followers in a matter of days.

Telegram’s growth comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin is lowering a digital iron curtain on the country, which has been targeted by sweeping Western sanctions. Several channels with large followings carry posts that appear to defy the Kremlin’s decision to criminalize what it considers to be false information about the conflict, such as describing it as a “war” or “invasion.”

One Russian-language channel run by independent journalist Ilya Varlamov, which offers a stream of news updates that have included footage of burning apartment buildings in Kyiv, increased its subscriber-count fivefold to nearly 1.3 million since the war began, according to statistics service Telemetrio. Earlier this week, the channel shared uncensored video footage of the moment when an employee of Russian state-television Channel One ran on its evening news broadcast with a poster that read “Don’t believe the propaganda” while shouting “Stop the war.” It was viewed 1.2 million times.

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The freewheeling nature of Telegram has experts guessing how the app has survived the Kremlin’s cull of other social-media platforms. Some analysts say the app’s following in Russia makes it too big to cancel.

For years, Telegram, which was initially started in Russia, has been the go-to news feed for many people in the country. It has become a major outlet for the Kremlin’s own message, both through proxies and official government accounts. Many pro-Kremlin channels on Telegram are growing as fast, if not faster, than independent or pro-Ukraine ones. Russian state-owned news service RIA Novosti has increased its number of Telegram subscribers nearly fourfold to 1.6 million since the war began, Telemetrio data show.

“Telegram isn’t perceived as a total enemy resource. It’s not perceived as a tool of information war against Russia,” said Ivan Kolpakov, editor in chief and co-founder of Meduza, a Russian-language independent publication whose website was blocked by the Kremlin but which remains available on platforms including Telegram. “In Russia, a huge culture of uncensored journalism and so-called journalism appears on Telegram,” he added.

A Telegram spokesman said that the company has zero visibility on why Russian regulators haven’t blocked the application, or whether they will attempt to do so. He said that Telegram has seen “a notable influx of users from Russia and Ukraine,” adding: “We believe in freedom of speech and are proud we can serve people in different countries in difficult times.”

Both the New York Times and Washington Post have in recent days started using Telegram channels to publish some of their reporting on the war in Ukraine.

Telegram was founded in 2013 in Russia by Pavel Durov and his brother just months before Mr. Durov was ousted from VK, a Russian social-media platform that is similar to Facebook. Mr. Durov, now based in Dubai, has long taken a libertarian viewpoint on content moderation, saying his app, which allows users to encrypt specific chats, puts a priority on privacy, security and free speech.

On his Russian-language public channel, Mr. Durov said on Feb. 27 that he would consider restricting channels in Russia and Ukraine during the war to rein in unverified information, before reversing course, citing appeals from users.

“I ask you to double-check and not take on faith the data that is published in Telegram channels during this difficult period,” he added.

Telegram introduced public-facing channels on top of its private messages in late 2015, turning it into a social media platform—quickly leading to tensions with governments. The app faced criticism in Europe when Islamic State used its channels as a recruitment tool, and to help incite followers to commit a spate of terrorist attacks.

The company has added more content moderation and bans pornography and explicit calls for violence under its terms of service. Telegram says it removes tens of thousands of terrorist bots and channels every month, including 19,000 in February. The company also more recently complied with European Union sanctions orders to prevent accounts in the EU from viewing Telegram channels for Russian state-owned media outlets RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and Sputnik News.

In Russia, Telegram racked up 50 million rubles in fines over the course of 2021, equivalent to around $483,000 at today’s exchange rate, for failing to remove banned content, the Telegram spokesman said. The app didn’t remove any channels or automated accounts when Russia’s telecommunications watchdog in March asked it to remove a set of automated accounts offering information about captured or killed Russian soldiers, the spokesman added.

“Any requests related to political censorship or limiting human rights such as the rights to free speech or assembly are not and will not be considered,” the Telegram spokesman said.

Some digital-media experts say Russia might be tolerating Telegram’s noncompliance in part to avoid a popular backlash. Telegram says that 7% to 8% of its users are in Russia, which works out to more than 40 million people. Banning it risks driving people in Russia to explore using virtual private networks, anticensorship browser extensions and other tools to skirt past the online blockade, the experts say. That is what happened when Iran tried to block Telegram beginning in late 2017.

Another explanation may be that blocking Telegram might be technically difficult for Russia, internet experts say. The country attempted to block Telegram for more than two years beginning in 2018, citing its refusal to turn over account information in terrorism investigations. But despite regulators banning what Telegram described as thousands of IP addresses a day, the app continued to thrive in Russia.

“Telegram is able to do things that make it extremely difficult to knock it offline,” said Ethan Zuckerman, a professor of public policy, communication and information at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

In June 2020, the Russian regulators lifted the block. Critics of Telegram questioned whether the app struck a deal behind the scenes with the Kremlin. But the company said that the decision was solely Russia’s. The regulator didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment on why it lifted the ban, but said at the time that it had done so because of Telegram’s stated willingness to counter terrorism on its platform.

“We have a consistent history of ‘zero compromise’ when facing bans in countries like Iran, China or Russia,” the Telegram spokesman said. “We didn’t negotiate with Russia in 2018 when we still thought their ban of Telegram might be successful, let alone in 2020 when it turned out their ban was ineffective,” he added.

Moving to block Telegram now would also risk disrupting the communications of some of the Kremlin’s biggest backers. The Telegram feed of Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the Chechen Republic and an ally of Mr. Putin, has become one of the platform’s fastest-growing Russian-language channels, publishing a stream of pro-Kremlin bravado and taunting to 1.1 million subscribers, a group that has grown 20-fold since before the invasion, Telemetrio data show.

On Monday, Mr. Kadyrov used Telegram to engage Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk who had quipped last week on Twitter that he would challenge Mr. Putin to a fight. “Vladimir Vladimirovich will look unsportsmanlike when he beats a weaker opponent,” Mr. Kadyrov responded in Russian on Telegram, using Mr. Putin’s patronymic and saying Mr. Musk should first train for the fight in Chechnya.

In a follow-up post on Twitter, Mr. Musk declined the offer, but said he was willing to fight Mr. Putin with his left hand.

US private equity group specialises in the retail and consumer sectors

New York based private equity group Sycamore Partners is considering an offer for UK high street fashion chain Ted Baker.

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The PE group, which specialises in investing in retail and consumer businesses, said in a statement on Friday that it was “in the early stages of considering making a possible cash offer for Ted Baker”, although it added that “there can be no certainty that an offer will ultimately be made”.

Sycamore now has until April 15 to decide whether to bid.

Sycamore is headquartered in New York and it has about $10bn of capital invested in companies, including US office supplies giant Staples.

Ted Baker is listed on the London Stock Exchange and its valued at around £180mn. It has struggled during the pandemic with losses growing to £86mn in the six months to the end of August.

The retailer first opened its doors in 1990 in London’s Covent Garden but its founder Ray Kelvin was forced to resign in 2019 following allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Numis Securities is acting as Sycamore’s financial adviser on the potential deal.

Finra’s notice comes amid growing concerns about individual liability among compliance professionals

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said it would only take action against chief compliance officers when they fail to carry out specific supervisory responsibilities designated by the firm, and not in matters where they play an advisory role.

Finra, Wall Street’s self-regulatory arm, in a regulatory note Thursday said that it generally considers the role of compliance chief an advisory position rather than a supervisory one. The responsibility for supervision under Finra rule 3110, which lays out obligations for member firms and requires each to designate individual supervisors for responsibilities, lies with a company’s senior business management and not its compliance officers.

It added that in cases in which it takes disciplinary action, it will look first to a firm’s senior business management team and supervisors to determine the responsibility for a failure to supervise.

Chief compliance officers were charged in 28 cases out of about 440 Finra disciplinary actions between 2018 and 2021 that involved supervisory failures under rule 3110, Finra said. In 18 of the 28 cases, the compliance chief also was the chief executive officer or president of the firm, a role that held supervisory responsibilities, and in the remaining 10 cases, the compliance chiefs held specific supervisory responsibilities given by the firm that they failed to perform, Finra said.

“Chief compliance officers play an important role in facilitating compliance by promoting strong practices that protect investors and market integrity,” said Jessica Hopper, head of enforcement at Finra. “That does not automatically make them supervisors, subject to Finra’s supervisory requirements.”

Finra’s notice comes after the New York City Bar Association and the National Society of Compliance Professionals each proposed their own frameworks to better define the individual liability for compliance chiefs. Their proposed frameworks aim to address growing concerns among compliance professionals about the extent of individual liability for compliance officers and to guide regulators as they look to clarify the chief compliance officer role when determining potential compliance failures.

“It’s leading to a good direction for firms and CCOs, but I think there is still more work to be done and more thinking to be done with these issues,” said Brian Rubin, a member of the board for the National Society of Compliance Professionals and of the committee that wrote the group’s framework, which was shared with Finra. Mr. Rubin, a partner at law firm Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP in Washington, said the notice addresses some of the concerns of compliance chiefs holding supervisory positions, but the industry has other concerns, such as when CCOs are charged even if they acted in good faith or made a mistake.

Adam Felsenthal, who leads the initiative at the New York City Bar Association, said the association’s committee is pleased to see the Finra guidance took into consideration a few factors suggested by its proposal, including situations in which the compliance chief ignored multiple red flags and when the CCO doesn’t have proper support in terms of staffing and resources.

“The framework really helps to comfort the compliance community that regulators are not going to target them indiscriminately,” said Mr. Felsenthal, who is general counsel and deputy chief compliance officer at healthcare investment firm Great Point Partners LLC. “This checks off one of the concerns and now they can go back to their main job and dig in deep and solve compliance issues.”

He added that a positive next step would be for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees Finra, to release a framework on this issue as well.

The violations resulted in the failure to file at least 3,873 suspicious activity reports, the U.S. Treasury’s financial crimes unit said

USAA Federal Savings Bank has agreed to pay $140 million after admitting it failed to fix an anti-money-laundering program that authorities said was “rudimentary” and significantly understaffed.

The bank, which caters to military members and their families, willfully failed to implement and maintain an anti-money-laundering program that met the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

The fine included separate civil penalties imposed by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The agencies said they coordinated on the settlement.

USAA’s anti-money-laundering failures occurred from at least January 2016 until April 2021, FinCEN said. USAA failed to file at least 3,873 reports about suspicious activity by its customers, including some who used their personal accounts for apparent criminal activity, the agency said.

“As its customer base and revenue grew in recent years, USAA FSB willfully failed to ensure that its compliance program kept pace, resulting in millions of dollars in suspicious transactions flowing through the U.S. financial system without appropriate reporting,” Himamauli Das, FinCEN’s acting director, said Thursday.

USAA said it was cooperating with regulators. “While the issues identified in these orders did not result in any individual member harm, we understand the importance of these requirements,” Chief Executive Wayne Peacock said. “Compliance is a top and urgent priority that is fundamental to providing our members with the highest level of service.”

The bank, which is based in San Antonio, provides retail deposit and consumer loan products for about 13 million customers.

Beginning in 2017, the OCC put USAA on notice that there were significant problems with its anti-money-laundering program, according to a consent order released Thursday.

The bank in 2018 made a commitment to overhaul its compliance program, including by developing adequate customer due diligence and risk identification processes, but has to date failed to meet deadlines to do so, according to FinCEN.

During the time when the violations occurred, USAA’s compliance department was significantly understaffed, and relied heavily on third-party contractors, the agency said.

The bank in 2018 conducted an assessment and found it needed 178 permanent full-time positions to staff its compliance function. As of early 2021, the bank had 62 vacant positions, which included the head of its financial intelligence unit, FinCEN said. About 76% of the bank’s compliance staff needs were met by third-party contractors, the agency said.

USAA’s case alert and investigations system also was chronically deficient, according to the consent order. In 2021, the bank installed a new transaction-monitoring system, but failed to test it adequately before launch.

As a result, the new system failed to flag more than 1,300 cases the legacy system was able to catch, representing at least 160 suspicious activity reports that would have gone unfiled, FinCEN said.

The new system is now too sensitive and creates an unmanageable number of alerts and cases, the agency said. At the end of 2021, USAA had a backlog of around 90,000 alerts and 6,900 cases yet to be reviewed, the agency said.

FinCEN also pointed to a number of failings by USAA with respect to internal audits, training and customer due diligence policies.

Brand’s first purpose-built electric car, the Taycan, was launched in 2020 and outsold the 911 in 2021

Porsche has predicted that combustion engine models will account for less than a fifth of its sales by the end of the decade, as it accelerates its shift to electric after unexpected success with its first battery-powered car.

“In 2030, the share of all new vehicles with an all-electric drive should be more than 80 per cent,” said Oliver Blume, chief executive, who added that the transition was “running faster [than Porsche] planned years ago”.

The Stuttgart-based company, which is owned by Volkswagen and is the most profitable of its parent group’s 12 brands, is preparing for a partial flotation by the last quarter of the year. VW plans to list 25 per cent of the business, which could raise roughly €20bn, although only 12.5 per cent will be available for purchase by external investors.

The brand’s first purpose-built electric car, the Taycan, has been far more successful than executives or analysts predicted. It was launched in 2020 and outsold the 911 model in 2021, a year in which the company as a whole posted record revenues, deliveries and operating profits.

Porsche, which is set to unveil an electric Macan SUV next year, announced that it would now add an electrified version of its 718 sports car to its line-up by the middle of the decade.

It has previously said that half of its sales would be pure electric or hybrid vehicles by 2025, but on Friday added that this transition would accelerate in the following years, with pure electric models accounting for four out of five cars sold in 2030 and beyond.

The remaining combustion engine line-up is likely to be dominated by the 911, immortalised by Steve McQueen in the film Le Mans.

Blume promised in 2020 that “Porsche will always offer combustion engines, particularly in the 911”, while Lutz Meschke, chief financial officer, referred to the model as the “soul of our brand”.

Porsche confirmed that all other models would eventually be electrified, with the exception of the 911, for which a part-hybrid version is being developed.

Sales of the 911 accounted for roughly 13 per cent of total Porsche deliveries last year.

Audi, another of Volkswagen’s luxury brands, has pledged to stop making new petrol models from 2026, while Italian brand Maserati said on Thursday that it would offer electric models only from 2030. BMW, however, is sticking to its position of not naming a date for the phaseout of combustion engine models.

Like other VW brands, Porsche has been struggling to secure parts from suppliers in Ukraine, leading to delays in production. Taycan manufacturing in Stuttgart has been paused this week, while the Leipzig plant, which produces the Macan and Panamera, is operating at reduced capacity.