Using Telegram in online investigations

Telegram is quickly becoming ground zero for images and videos during conflict situations, surpassing X (formerly Twitter) in content exclusivity. During Russia's war against Ukraine, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and the liberation of Syria, users on Telegram posted images, videos, and commentary that did not permeate to other social media networks.
The growth of Telegram means reporters need to understand this unconventional social media network. This workshop aims to help reporters understand the structure and investigative potential of Telegram. First, attendees will learn how the social media network works. They’ll learn the difference between the mobile and various desktop applications and the sort of data they can get on Telegram itself. This will include getting metadata out of images, videos, and voice memos, downloading the history of a given channel, and working with the subsequent json file.
During the second part of the workshop, attendees will understand how to discover Telegram channels on the wider web, a key skill. They will learn the use of advanced search that will help them find channels on Google and Yandex. They will also learn how to search for channels on other social media channels, which are key distribution points. Attendees will additionally be introduced to various specialized search engines.
The workshop will finish with an overview of third-party apps reporters can use for wider analysis of Telegram. These include Telemetr, TGStat, Telepathy, and others. The apps can help reporters map relationships between Telegram channels, see most popular channels in a given country, area, or topic, and get a birds-eye view of a channel’s analytics.
By the end of the workshop, attendees will be familiar with the world of Telegram and will have the all-important base skillset they can rely on to gather information on the platform. This will be immensely helpful during breaking news situations, for reporters covering wars or other crises, for ongoing monitoring of communities that use Telegram as their home base and, of course, for fact-checking. A tipsheet with an overview of tools and approaches will be provided at the end of the workshop.