Telegram, the free zone for disinformation and conspiracies

According to statistics, Telegram is the third largest communication platform after WhastApp and Messenger. It is used by just over 700 million users worldwide. The company does not provide information on the number of users in each country, but according to Stata report and others, Telegram is not just the network of Russia and Ukraine. Europe accounts for a full fifth of its users, with at least 21,3  % of Germans and 46.5 % of Italians already using it.  

In addition to messaging, distant millions of users can set up groups and channels similar to Facebook groups and pages. Telegram does not provide information on how many personal accounts, channels and groups there are in and how big they are in countries outside the post-Soviet area. The largest server with statistics on Telegram channels and groups, Russia’s TGStat, reports that it has data on more than 1.2 milion groups and channels, the vast majority from post-Soviet countries. 

For Germany, TGStat only offers data on approximately 900 channels and groups. But as our analysis showed, there are at least 7,000 active groups and channels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The team of Firehose of Falsehood journalists created a catalog of Telegram channels from over 13 countries in Eastern and Central Europe, including Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia and Lithuania. In every country, some of the most popular Telegram channels and groups are part of the broader disinformation ecosystem, either by being associated with the alt-right scene or with pro-Kremlin groups or anti-vaxxers. 

Telegram is the largest functional platform for disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe, mostly free of public or law enforcement attention. There are exceptions like in Germany, but without any significant results. (See Telegram’s statement in response to our questions below the article).

Visualization examines groups and channels in our catalog that have over 10,000 members, and it explores their connections, if any, based on instances where one group or channel has shared posts from another at least once. The size of the nodes is determined by the number of members.

In the German-speaking countries where Telegram is widely used, nearly a quarter of a million users subscribe to the far-right channel AUF1 TV (Alternatives, unabhängiges Fernsehen – Alternative, independent television).

AUF1 is an online TV channel with origins in the Austrian alt-right movement. Since its creation, it has been prominently featuring known alt-right figures such as Jürgen Elsässer and politicians from the German right wing populist party AFD (Alternative für Deutschland) . AUF1TV’s Telegram channel has grown from 70,000 users in mid-2021 to a quarter of a million in early 2023. The rapid growth of AUF1 is aided by the entire network of ‘alternative’ media referring  to each other and promoting each other’s content. 

In February 2022, KommAustria, an Austrian media regulator, described the content of AUF1 as “violating the standards according to Austrian media law” and started an investigation. The Austrian interior ministry, asked about AUF1TV in late 2022 by the German public broadcaster ARD, confirmed: “Due to the broadcaster’s choice of topics, it can be assumed that there is a certain influence on extremist or conspiracy theorist audiences. To date, however, no unconstitutional or criminal content could be detected.”

If the Austrian regulators decide to shut down the online TV channel, AUF1TV might still keep its audience via its Telegram channel, over which the government won’t have much oversight or legal authority.

In Poland, Ocalić życie (Saving Lives), which spreads QAnon-related conspiracies among other content, reaches almost 30,000 subscribers. More influential channels in spreading Russian propaganda include Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny and News Front Polska, with previously reported links to Kremlin influence operations. Their websites were blocked by Polish authorities when the war in Ukraine broke out. Since then, our investigation finds, they have been actively developing their presence on Telegram, gaining hundreds of new subscribers monthly.

In the much smaller Czech Republic, the Absurdni svet (Absurd World in English) channel was similar in size to the Polish Ocalić Życie. The content linked to a number of German sites, including the German version of RT (Russia Today) and the German version of the Russian disinformation site News Front. The  Telegram channel CZ 24 NEWS has almost 23,000 subscribers, and belongs to one of the largest Czech-Slovak conspiracy websites.  The audience for many of these channels grew when Czech internet authority CZ.NIC blocked some pro-kremlin websites after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. .

In Slovakia, the largest Telegram channel reporters analyzed is a well-known representative of the far right, Danny Kollar, with more than 50,000 followers. Similarly influential is the channel of Infovojna (43,359 subscribers), a disinformation server that spreads the content and narrative of the Russian News Front. The Slovak version of the News Front has over 31.000 subscribers.

In Hungary, the biggest channel of the disinformation server Orosz Hírek (Russian News) has 15,000 fans.  The largest Serbian Telegram channel is the personal channel of Dejan Beric, a Pro-Russian Serbian soldier who fought for the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic and is currently in charge of recruiting Serbian volunteers for the Russian army. His channel has over 86,000 subscribers. In neighboring Bulgaria, one of the largest channels is Bulgarian Military Union “Vasil Levski” with over 11,000 subscribers. The channel is run by paramilitary organisation linked to Russia. 

In addition to regional channels defined by language and state, there are also transnational channels. The project reporters analyzed how content is shared between almost 18,000 Telegram channels and groups.  

Online website Disclose.tv, is a far-right site operating from Passau, Germany. This channel’s posts are the most frequently shared in the largest number of countries. Reporters found 21 countries or languages in which posts have been shared, including Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and Croatia. 

The channel with the second-most shared posts in different countries is SGTnewsNetwork. There is not much public information on the channel, which mostly disseminates content related to the US alt-right conspiracy scene.

The channel with the third-most shared posts in different countries is LauraAboli’s channel, which belongs to the co founder World Check intelligence platform used by due diligence companies and the 2020 founder of the United Democratic International Movement for Awareness and Freedom. The channel promotes content focused on so-called “vaccine truth” and questions if Covid existed at all. It features video content from the US alt-right media. Links to other fat-right sites such as www.zerohedge.com, www.theepochtimes.com, www.disclose.tv and www.breitbart.com are also frequently shared.

All these channels are in English but the countries of origin are different. In addition, German language channels and groups seem to play a major role in spreading disinformation, alt-right and conspiracy content .

The most shared content of the German-language channels shared abroad were mostly from the disinformation, conspiracy and alt-right scene:

No other Telegram accounts from EU countries we studied play such an important role in spreading extreme views as German Telegram channels and groups.

So the growing activity of German language disinformation seems to have a major impact on a large European audience. Articles from German disinformation websites are widely shared by other alternative websites in Central and Eastern Europe, and so are posts from their Telegram channel. The impact is hidden radicalization of the European disinformation ecosystem that has so far escaped the attention of the public.