"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth"
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Center for Monitoring, Analysis, and Strategy (CeMAS) report "Chronology of a radicalization" reveals how Telegram became the most important stage for this milieu in German-speaking countries within the last three years. Not just in Germany, but around the world, disinformation and conspiracy narratives are shared via Telegram. Demonetization can be an important means of limiting disinformation and conspiracy ideology.
Within the past three years, Telegram has become the most important platform for conspiracy ideologues and right-wing extremists in German-speaking countries. Using this messaging service, numerous channels reach hundreds of thousands of people every day – and for some messages, the number of views is in the millions.
The messaging service was used, for example, to organize the protests of the so-called “Querdenken” movement during the COVID-19 pandemic and to spread conspiracy narratives about vaccination. The pro-Russian disinformation shared on the platform manages to exert deep influence on political discourses and attitudes far beyond the boundaries of online chat records. Plans for coups and terrorist acts have been openly discussed, and antisemitic content disseminated en masse. [...]
