US users are estimated to be around 2 percent of the total Telegram audience, or approximately 10 million users. Initially developed in Russia, Telegram has become popular in post-Soviet states, especially Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The cloud-based app is surpassed only by WhatsApp (2 billion users worldwide), Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion users), and WeChat (1.2 billion users, primarily in China and the Chinese diaspora). Telegram is the fourth most popular messaging app worldwide, with 550 million users in 2021. Understanding the nuances may be helpful to build bridges to bring some of their audiences back to civic and democratic debates and stop further radicalization, especially with the 2022 US midterm elections on the horizon. This study aims to shed light on the dynamics of the different Telegram communities in the United States discussing extremist or fringe politics. However, extremism is a far-reaching label that may obscure political and communicational dynamics occurring in Telegram channels. Telegram’s growth appears to have been driven by political extremists fleeing from the moderation policies of major social media platforms. In the United States, Telegram has emerged as a popular messaging app among right-wing groups.

Telegram groups